Scattered Leaves Part 1
by Mini Goat
Summary: Lost in time. Mal takes a bounty only to find that as usual, nothing is as it seems.
1. Prologue

**_AN:_**_ Running off on a bit of a tangent. I thought I'd mash up my favorite captain in some of the usual trouble he finds himself in with my favorite Colonel and some unusual trouble for him. This is part ONE and there will be at least a second and possibly a third story. As per usual my series name will match the first title even if I set something prior to the first story (in this case that's unlikely)_

**Scattered Leaves – Part 1**

This story will be more of a novella than a short story. It will be a three part series that I will submit as a single document though I will begin release of each part as it's finished regardless if the next part is or not. In light of our current world condition, we could be closer to this situation than any of us realizes but perhaps without lifeboats or a Stargate to rescue us. I'll try not to get too heavy handed or preachy though.

The primary focus of the story is to tie these universes together in a plausible way. I hope I have succeeded in doing so and making all of it as fun as possible while I did so. Any continuity mistakes of either universe are my own. This might make for a fun fan comic adaptation if anyone is interested in doing so. Drop me a line if you are.

**Chapter 1 - Prologue**

Mal looked down at the salt and pepper haired man prone on the ground. "Would have been a lot easier to bring you in dead." He said to the unconscious man who had fought valiantly to avoid capture. "Jayne, put him in the hold."

"All right." Jayne said noncommittally and threw the older man over his shoulder. His quarry groaned something that made Jayne stop. "What?" he demanded.

The older man croaked out something too soft for Mal to hear in the wind blowing across the grassy meadow he taken to ground in and Jayne set him down with a thump. "Mal, we got a problem."

"What now?"

"Our bounty has a wife."

"So?" Mal asked in disinterest.

"Our client has her. The bounty is to get her cooperation."

"Go tsao de liars. They told me he was wanted for murder." The man didn't correct Mal that being wanted for murder probably wasn't unlikely as he had probably killed a few people to escape.

"Yah, well, do you suppose his wife is worth some money to him?"

The tall grey haired man who was dressed in a black t-shirt, a brown leather overcoat and green cargo pants scrubbed his hands through his hair. "I can get you money if you can get us home. She's a national treasure." He said with a pained look.

"How much money?" Mal drawled.

"We've been missing for almost two years by her calculations. They would pay a _lot_ to get her back. She's one of our top scientists."

"Mal, why are you standing out here chatting with the prisoner?" Kaylee demanded from the rear bay door.

"Looks like we got a better offer." He told her.

"Well, you better get inside before the Alliance shows up or we'll have a lot more to deal with than flipped bounty."

"Girl's got a point." Jayne pointed out.

"Fine, grab him. Let's go." Mal said with a sweep of his shoulder.

"I can walk" the older man muttered as Jayne hauled him up.

Ten minutes later, Mal stood against the wall of the small eating area, Sheppard Book behind him, Jayne sat across from the unknown older man, arms crossed against his chest, his brows lowered. Kaylee sat in the corner and River and Simon sat in the other.

The older man sat, his hands on the table where everyone could see them and appraised the motley collection of characters before him. There had been a pilot and navigator too but they had chosen to remain in the cockpit.

"So," Mal said casually. "Why don't you tell me what happened to you and your wife."

"Sam and I were on a routine diplomatic trip, you know, kiss some hands, shake some babies…"


	2. Two Years Ago:

_**AN:**__Jack delves into how he came to find himself right back where he started except without Carter_

**Two Years Ago:**

"Carter, what happened?"

They had come to on an empty meadow, no sign of a gate, no sign of the Tepi who had escaped the Goa'uld hundreds of years before and whose civilization was advanced enough to exchange technology with. They weren't quite up to earth levels but they had electricity and other 19th century technology and some medicines that were superior to Earth's.

"I don't know sir. There's nothing to indicate where we are." She said slightly defeated. All she had on her was a soil sample kit, her computer and a handful of now useless doohickeys.

Jack sighed as he took off his CBC and scrubbed at his hair. "Care to take a guess?" his eyes squinted.

"Well, if you want me to guess I'd say there was a gate malfunction and the wormhole dumped us out at the next nearest working gate but there's no gate and I have no idea why not."

"There's something you don't know Carter?" he said with a look of mild surprise that made her grin sheepishly at him.

"Very funny sir." She told him. "But not very helpful."

"You'll figure it out Sam."

"Well, let's hope so because until I do, we're stuck here." She sighed.

Jack looked at her with longing when she wasn't looking at him anymore. The last time they had been potentially stuck somewhere he'd admonished her to maintain the chain of command because they were going through withdrawal and she might not be thinking her responses through. But even though they couldn't use it, there had been a nice big honkin' gate to leave by that time. There was no sign of the gate here. It was either hidden or had never been here to begin with but if that was the case he had no idea how they got where they were as that wasn't even supposed to be possible.

"I'll go set up camp while you try to figure this out Carter."

"Yes sir." She mumbled thoughtfully as she pulled her computer out of her kit.

They had decided to bring load outs in spite of the diplomatic nature of the trip and Jack was now glad about his own paranoia. They had a little food, spare clips and, more importantly, a tent. It wouldn't last long though. They would need to find shelter and food or, better yet, friendlies. Hunting or fishing wasn't a problem, Jack and Sam were both proficient at both though he was better at snares and Sam was superior at taking down large game. Their two man tent would keep them dry though possibly not very warm without their sleeping bags. They would have to huddle together for warmth tonight.

Once the camp was set up Jack headed off to a small mound of scrub in hopes of finding some dry firewood. He didn't think he'd find much. Shrubs weren't known for generating much firewood but it was better than nothing and he'd rather not waste what little sterno they had available. "Carter! You want mac-n-cheese or this Chicken Kiev for dinner tonight?" He bellowed to her as she was several feet away fiddling with her laptop. He was glad they had come up with solar chargers. It might take a long time to charge the battery but she could charge one while using the other making her lag time somewhat minimal.

"Doesn't matter sir. They both taste like chicken."

Jack looked at the MREs perplexed. There were worse MREs than either. The pork patties were like eating decade old jerky on a good day. He cooked them both figuring they could switch halfway through. "Soup's on." He told her.

Sam sat down next to him and took the chicken only to pick at it.

"Eat Carter or I'm eating both." He threatened which earned him a worried smile from her. "All right, what is it?" He asked, knowing something was bothering her but she wouldn't bring it up directly unless she was asked directly.

"Sir, I don't know if I can get us home." She admitted with a troubled frown.

Jack turned to her and waited until she looked into his eyes. "You'll get us home Sam." He told her with absolute conviction and held her gaze as long as she would let him. Her eyes slid down to his lips and back up again before she looked down at her food with intense interest. Jack smiled a little to himself. However much she might pretend not to; she still had the same feelings for him as he did for her. Of course he was irrecoverably and deeply in love with her so he had that going for him. And he had the utmost confidence in her abilities to get them home eventually. In the meantime, he'd make sure they had shelter, food, and warm beds.

Sam finished her half of the chicken and traded with Jack not even asking as this was nearly tradition for their team that started with Jack and Daniel but had since spread to all four of them. So much so that it didn't even register with Sam that she'd taken his fork and was licking cheese off it absently. Jack swallowed hard and reminded himself the war wasn't over and until it was he was still her CO and fantasizing about her licking anything else with that kind of determination was strictly forbidden.

* * *

Later that evening he'd made a pad of local leaves under one of their emergency blankets. "We'll have to share. I tried making two separate piles but there wasn't much to pick from and these aren't big enough to wrap entirely around you." He told her.

"It's fine sir. As long as we're warm."

"I set up a trip wire so we don't have to keep watch all night. There doesn't seem to be anything out there, not even large game. Might be some vicious mice though." While she had taken readings and tried to find the gate, he had gone on a long patrol to check the area and found next to nothing in the valley other than some small stands of trees and the occasional hillock. The rest was tuffets of grass punctuated by wildflowers and grey looking wads of heath all the way to the rocky slope of the mountain range on either side of them.

Sam chuckled. "Caerbannog rabbits?"

"Or those." He agreed with a grin. "C'mere." He told her after slipping between the blankets fully clothed.

Sam shrugged and laid down facing away from him only to have Jack pull her against him and tuck the top blanket over both of them as it wasn't very wide.

"Get some sleep Carter. You can try to figure this out tomorrow. If you can't, we'll go look for some people. Hopefully there's someone on this dirt ball."

"Yes sir." She told him in that sleepy voice he recognized as her being more relaxed than she'd be willing to admit and within moments she was soundly asleep. Jack closed his eyes, kissed the crown of her head and went into a state of alert sleep just in case.

* * *

The next morning they woke at daybreak, still cuddled in each other's arms. Jack sleepily nuzzled her neck and his hand had worked its way under her shirt and was slowly stroking her stomach. "Jack." She said to him softly the let out a soft hum of pleasure when his lips found a sensitive spot on her neck.

Jack's only response was to fit her more firmly against his chest and explore the lobe of her left ear with his lips, tongue and teeth.

"Jack." She said more firmly.

"Not done." He complained.

"Jack, if you don't stop we're going to do something neither of us is going to regret but…"

Jack's hand strayed over her breast and brushed her nipple until it hardened under his touch. But after that, he loosened his grip and moved back enough for her to roll onto her back to look up into his warm eyes. She started to say something but he shook his head slightly and put a finger over her lips. At her perplexed look, he leaned in, lightly brushed her lips with his own then got up and left the tent.

Sam let out a long slow sigh and told her body to calm the hell down because right now she wanted exactly one thing. And he had just left.

Jack relieved himself behind one of the few shrubs in the immediate vicinity, regretting Sam's habit of being logical. Realistically, he knew if he'd pushed the issue, right now they would be making slow passionate love to one another. He couldn't even hate himself for wanting her. He'd woken to her murmuring his name in her sleep and moaning softly and moving sinuously against him which left him no illusion about what she'd been dreaming about. It was only fair. He'd had similar dreams about her and woken needing to either take a cold shower or finish what his brain had started. A few times all he'd been able to do was clean up the mess and throw his damp musky shorts in the wash. If his sense of smell hadn't betrayed him, she needed to change her panties or spend a day smelling like lust herself. Jack grinned a little that it had been his name she'd moaned in her sleep and not the cop's.

He came back and stoked the banked fire to make a breakfast. Powdered eggs. Yum. He thought dryly. Sam had studiously avoided looking at him as she left to relieve herself behind the same bush he'd used himself and Jack chuckled inwardly. He doubted she'd tell him but he'd almost guarantee she'd been so revved up that she'd finished the job while he was gone to avoid jumping him when he came back. The flush of her cheeks had given her away. It wasn't the first time they had woken up in a similar state of need together and by unspoken agreement, usually whoever was worse off got to stay in the tent to privately take care of the situation. Jack had been aroused but no more than he usually was around her.

Jack finished making the eggs and passed her a bowl before digging into his own. "We should probably pack up this afternoon if you don't figure something out Carter. We don't have a lot of supplies on us and we need to find civilization. Our best bet is probably north up the valley. At least we might find some water and some trees which will mean game."

Sam nodded thoughtfully. He had a point. "I'll see what I can do Sir, but I couldn't find anything that even indicated where the gate might be. If it's cloaked, it's out of phase too."

"And that's… bad. Isn't it?" He said concerned. His brows furrowed in a troubled manner.

"Very bad as we have none of the equipment that would recalibrate it, assuming it's been forced out of phase by something Tollan or Alteran and not some other technology I'm not familiar with."

"Do you want to just pack up now and try heading north?" He offered.

Sam hated admitting defeat but nothing she'd found yesterday was going to help. She had no way to test soil samples in the field and they didn't have a MALP. All they had were the contents of the packs on their backs and those were slim pickings. "We may as well sir." She admitted.

"All right. I'll pack up camp Carter. You keep trying to get some kind of readings until it's time to go." He gave her a reassuring smile. He still had every confidence that Sam would get them home.

"Yes sir." She should argue with him that she needed to help break camp too but she knew he mostly needed to keep his hands busy after the way they woke up.

* * *

By midday they had worked their way up the valley to the start of a tree line. There were scattered smooth barked deciduous with a few groupings of large shrubs but at least it made the hot dry air a little cooler and Jack put a hand up when he thought he heard the trickle of water. They moved silently, following the sound until they heard the murmur of voices as well. Jack motioned Sam down into the limited ground cover and they crept forward until they could make out the voices. They spoke an odd mix of English and what sounded like Chinese to Jack. It wasn't one of his better languages so he could be wrong.

Sam had settled in next to him and he pointed discreetly. "Mercenaries" he said softly.

She nodded agreement.

He gave her a questioning look that was answered with a 'why not' sort of shrug. Jack stood slowly with his hands out where the mercenaries could see them. "Howdy folks, don't be alarmed, we're just looking for a way off this rock."

A tall man in a weathered grey duster looked at Jack hard. "You don't look like Alliance solders."

"Well that's because we aren't." Jack said calmly and frowned a little.

Sam slowly came out of the trees and stood next to Jack. Her hands similarly clearly visible.

"Who are you people?" The man in the duster asked.

"Jack O'Neill. This is Sam Carter. We're just travelers trying to get back home." A younger Sam might have given him a sharp look for the omission of their ranks but years of experience had her trusting his instincts about the situation entirely.

"What brings you to Gonghe?" The apparent leader asked. His dark hair flopping in his eyes periodically in the breeze.

"Funny you should ask. We got dumped here and had no idea where we even were." Jack told them with a confused shrug. The best lies were the truth.

"Who dumped you stranger?" An older man next to the leader asked before spitting into the dirt next to him.

Opting for partial truth again, Jack shrugged in apparent confusion. "Some guys from a place called SGC. Ever heard of it?" He looked around at the confused faces. "No? Well, it's a military group and I don't think we were supposed to end up here. There's supposed to be a Stargate here." He noticed their confused looks. "Big ring thing? No?" his shoulders lifted in resignation. "Is there any chance you know someone who can get us a ride back to Earth?"

"Earth?" The leader barked then laughed in amusement. "A grand jest friend, but where are you really from?"

Jack looked at Sam a little confused. "We really do come from Earth." He insisted.

"Boy, Earth has been dead for five hundred years or more. Where you really from sā huǎng shǎ guā?"


	3. Where is Here

**Chapter 2 - Where is Here**

"Where's Daniel when I need him." Jack sighed.

"He called you a lying fool. Ain't yah know Mandarin?"

"Look, we just want to get home, now I don't have any money on me but we could work for our passage. Sam here is good at fixing things and she's good in a fight. I'm pretty good at planning missions and a fair shot."

Sam snorted when he said he was a fair shot.

"You got something to say little lady?" the older man sneered.

"Easy Carter." Jack murmured and put a hand on her arm before she could even bow up.

"Sir." She all but snarled.

"Might want to drop the 'sir' stuff for now." He told her out of the side of his mouth.

Sam huffed in exasperation.

"Your woman got somethin' to say stranger?"

"I think she was just laughing at me being a fair shot. I'm pretty good actually."

"How good?"

"I've gotten a couple awards for it." He supplied.

"Fair nuff. Ya'll don't want to tell us where you're from, that's fine. 'Taint the first folks we've run across that's not so very trusting. Where yah need ta be?"

"Anywhere but here." Jack admitted. He figured if he could get them off this dirt ball they could find a planet with a Stargate or someone who knew where there was one.

"All right. You said you two can fight? We could use a couple people as we've lost a few in the last couple jobs."

"Great!" Jack said clapping his hands together. "Your ship need any repairs? Sam's a whiz."

"Well, come on then folks. Ain't no reason to stand round these parts."

"Why were you guys here?" Jack asked affably.

"Reaver patrols."

"Ah." Jack said as though he understood even though he had zero idea what the other man was talking about.

"Name's Augustus Shu. Y'all can call me Cap'n Gus though."

Sam put out her hand. "It's nice to meet you captain."

"She for real?"

"She's very polite that's all." Jack said.

"Huh." The captain said and lifted her fingers to kiss the back of her hand which made Sam snatch her hand back slightly shocked.

Jack tried not to smile. "I think she meant to just shake your hand." He told the other man with a firm tight shake of his head to Sam not to knife the guy for being presumptuous.

One of the mercenaries that hadn't spoken yet joined them behind Jack and Sam. "You available for some recreation little lady?" he asked hopefully.

Jack firmly grabbed Sam's hand. "She's not available." He said, his expression grim.

"Why aincha letting the lady speak for herself." The man wheedled.

"Sorry, I'm spoken for." Sam told him and put her other hand on Jack's bicep suggestively.

"That makes things easier. We got a couple empty berths on account of losin' some of our men. You can share one to save space in case we pick up more crew." Gus told them.

Jack pouched out his lips thoughtfully. "Works for me." He told the captain.

* * *

They were alone in the room they had been assigned at the end of the living quarters. It had a double wide bunk with a single bunk above it and an attached head. They had been warned not to bathe unless they checked with Butch who handled supplies to make sure there was enough recycled water on hand.

"Carter, you take the bottom bunk. I'm used to sleeping on cots."

"And I'm not?"

"Well if you really want to share." He said with a suggestive grin.

"Sir." The word was loaded with meaning.

"Ah! Just Jack, Sam. Something tells me we really don't want these people knowing anything about us."

Sam sighed in defeat. Their situation hadn't improved any and what had Gus meant by Earth being gone. Had the Goa'uld convinced these people Earth was gone then hidden their gate so they wouldn't learn otherwise? If so, why? Were they just that far enough off the beaten path that they figured the SGC wouldn't send anyone here? "I need to get access to their main computers. Find out where we are. What these people think happened."

Jack thought for a moment and sat down on the bottom bed. "Let's try the honest way first. They don't have any reason to keep us on the ship until we prove our worth and I'd rather not float home."

"Did you just make a Star Wars joke Jack?" she asked him mildly.

Jack grinned at her. "What do you think, your worship?"

Sam picked up one of the pillows and swatted him with it which made him laugh, grab her and pin her to the bed.

"Surrender." He told her laughing.

"Never!" She gasped knowing she risked being tickled.

"I have you pinned Carter." He growled at her.

But instead of answering him she looked longingly at his lips then back into his eyes, hers dark pools of desire.

"Carter, we really shouldn't be doing this." He warned her but his body betrayed him by answering her eyes with a definitive yes.

"Jack." His name was as soft as a breeze on her lips and her eyes grew heavy lidded as they continued to look into his.

He let out a low groan of surrender and his mouth descended on hers and his tongue demanded entry. She arched against him and purred her satisfaction at having gotten what she wanted.

There was a loud bang on their berth door. "Report to the mess in ten." A voice neither recognized bellowed then moved on to the next occupied berth to bellow the same thing.

"They have their very own Daniel." He said with a chuckle and a final quick peck on her lips. "We need to talk about this Carter but not right now." He told her before getting off her. "I'll be in the head trying to get rid of the flagpole in my pants." He grumbled which earned him an amused giggle from her. "No giggling Carter." He complained.

Sam bit her lip to stop herself from saying 'yes sir'. She wasn't sure why she was doing this to herself again. It wasn't like she needed to prove that he still wanted her and she had a boyfriend. But if Sam was honest with herself, she was pretty sure they were stuck here… forever. She'd never see Pete again and even if she got home she doubted she wanted to. Last night she'd dreamed about making love to Jack and woke up in his arms perilously close to making love to him again in real life. If she really loved Pete, she wouldn't be having dreams about Jack like this.

When they had been mind-stamped, their real memories had been suppressed and all either remembered was that they loved each other so of course they had acted on it. The trouble started when they got home and there was no way to forget how it felt to be each other's lover. She'd thought his feelings had changed when she was on the Prometheus and come back and he'd admonished her not to call him Jack but what if she'd been wrong? What if he was just as frustrated with the situation as she was. Sam sighed in pent up aggravation.

The only solution Sam could think of was to convince him to be her lover again and make it clear that she was willing to keep things under wraps until something about their situation changed. There were ways around the regs if you were determined enough, it just took some clever footwork. She realized though that he wouldn't just chuck everything and make love to her because he wanted to. She would have to give him the time and space to decide it was his idea.

Sam lay against the pillow jammed against the bunk wall and huffed out a frustrated sigh. She could solve his problem by joining him in the head and taking matters into her own hands. She grinned at the pun.


	4. Useful Idiots

**Chapter 3 – Useful idiots**

"All right people, Niska is looking for a guy named Weston. He's about Yay high." He said holding his hand at about Sam's height. "Nasty attitude too. Niska wants him alive seeing as he wants information out of him afore he kills him." Gus told everyone. "This couple here is Jack and Sam. They ain't said where they are from an it ain't yer business neither." He told the collection of questionable characters. There were about twenty various humans in the room. They weren't dressed the way Jack really expected of a space fairing group of people.

Most of them looked like they fell out of a western written in the 1980s and the rest of them looked like disaffected teenagers had dressed them. It made no sense to Jack whatsoever. Gus fell more to the western look. Jack honestly didn't really care but it just seemed so… odd.

"Weston was last holed up on Burnet so it's going to be a few weeks afore we get there."

Sam looked perplexed. "A few weeks?"

"Ain't traveled out of yer own system, eh?" One of the mercenaries asked her. "Takes some time to get from White Star system to Blue Star system."

"Why? How far is it?" Sam asked quietly, expecting to hear it was on the other side of the galaxy.

"Next star system over." He said. "Name's Pog miss." He said gamely.

"Next… but that should only take an hour or two even on the Prometheus."

He laughed. "Girl, that ship ain't flied in five hundred years."

Sam's brows furrowed together and Jack gently nudged her to remind her that things may not be as they seem. "Still, a smaller ship should be able to get there faster."

Pog laughed. "Jack, your wife has a funny sense of humor. A couple hours. Ain't no ship can go that fast. You'd need to fly faster than light for it."

"Yah, she's a riot. We should be listening to the mission plan Carter." He said with an amused smile and brushed his fingers on her jaw affectionately to keep up appearances but if he was honest, all he was doing was acting the way he wanted to anyway.

Sam rolled her eyes but went back to listening to Gus' description of their quarry while she pondered what Pog had said about not having hyperdrives. And how was it the Prometheus hadn't flown in five hundred years which was when Gus had said Earth was abandoned. Sam started to get a terrible suspicion but she kept it to herself until the briefing was over.

* * *

"I think I figured something out Si… Jack."

"Oh?" He asked while he dug around in her pack for his game boy.

"Well, granted there are several permutations that could affect the answer, but I think the gate got hit by a solar flare."

"Yah, I kind of figured that too." He agreed and triumphantly held up his toy.

"You did?" She asked him skeptically.

"Well it's happened before." He said with a shrug and turned on his game and scooted towards the back wall on her bunk.

Sam tilted her head and made a considering face. "All right, fair enough. The part I haven't figured out is where was the gate when we woke up. It should have been right behind us." She reached over and plucked his Game boy out of his hands.

"Hey!" he said, giving her mutinous look.

"I need you to pay attention Jack." She told him firmly and turned the electronic off. "So anyway the only thing I can come up with is the gate is out of phase."

"That's not good." Jack told her.

"It really isn't. They have spaceships and I think some of the tech looks familiar. It's almost as if they had access to some of SGC's information but not all of it."

"Well, we can wait it out, see if you can get into the computers. Make friends with some of these guys and find out who handles engine repairs. I'm sure they will find you useful." He said, patting her hand affectionately.

Sam looked at him for a long moment then leaned back next to him and put her head on his shoulder.

"You'll get us home Sam." He told her firmly but Sam really wasn't sure about that at all.

She sighed softly and he wrapped his arm around her shoulders and gave her a reassuring hug.

* * *

The next morning, Sam woke up snuggled against Jack's chest. They must have fallen asleep hugging each other last night. Brown eyes blinked slowly open and looked up at her. "Mornin'," he said in a gravely sleepy voice. "What time is it?"

"Not sure, I just woke up too." She admitted.

"We may as well put our packs on the top bunk Sam. It's pretty obvious this is just going to keep happening." He said referring to them talking until they fell asleep in each other's arms. At some point they had lain down and one of them had tugged the blanket over them. Their legs were tangled together and her arms had been wrapped tightly around him in sleep.

Sam looked at him with a thoughtful frown. He wasn't wrong and it did push them in the direction she was fairly certain she wanted him going in but she suspected if she didn't put up some kind of token resistance he'd be suspicious and back off. "Si… Jack, we don't know that and we fell asleep that way because we were both exhausted."

"Carter." He said simply.

"Sir?" she deliberately slipped again.

"Just for once would you just go with this?" He was hard pressed to not admit he'd slept better holding her in a rock hard bunk than he had for years in his own bed alone. He wasn't ready to admit to himself that he deeply hoped she'd change her mind about not wanting to be with him.

She looked at him for a long time and appeared to be thinking about the idea. Finally she nodded slowly.

He gave her a quick, affectionate peck on the lips before sliding out of the bed to hit the head.

Sam smiled softly in satisfaction. It wasn't fair the way she was manipulating him but she had pushed him away and hurt him. Jack could say he was a simple man all he wanted, but if she just up and admitted to Jack that her feelings for Pete weren't much more than a passing attraction she'd used to try to get over him that, well, that hadn't worked. She was still as ridiculously in love with Jack as she had been when he looked her in the eyes and said he cared about her more then he was supposed to. And simple or not, even a simple man was gun shy of getting hurt again.

And if she was going to be stuck five hundred years in the future with no way home, she was going to be with the man she loved in every possible way. The man she hopes still loves her.

Jack came out of the head and saw her sitting on the bed hugging a pillow to her chest. "What's on your mind Carter?" He asked her softly.

"Just thinking." She said with a shrug and took his place in the head.

Jack looked after her thoughtfully. That had seemed more like brooding to him. Was she regretting their situation or her actions? He'd never take advantage of her unresolved feelings for him. He figured she was dating the cop to get over him. He saw the way she still looked at him. It made his heart feel like it was going to burst from his chest sometimes. But perhaps her feelings for the cop were more than he'd initially thought. Jack sighed.

He knew what he wanted but it wasn't his right to take it. If she wanted to change the situation, she would have to be the one to press the issue.


	5. Of Mice and Men

**Chapter 4 – Of Mice and Men**

Three months had passed and Sam had some answers but none of them would help them get home. She and Jack had made a point of trying to quietly learn what was going on. From what they had gathered, the gate had tried to dump them into a nearby star system but because it had been hit by a solar flare they were a bit over five hundred years into the future.

No one seemed to know anything about the gate or the Alterans or even the Goa'uld. It was as if as the Earth died. Some people left through the Gate, possibly to Atlantis, and everyone else got onto lifeboats that didn't have hyperdrives. Sam wasn't sure why. The planets and moons in the system had been aggressively terraformed which meant humanity had been introduced to some Alteran tech but not others.

Her other theory revolved around there just hadn't been time to gather up enough naquadah to power such large ships and they had to wing it then lost the knowledge afterward. Possibly seeing the writing on the wall, the people of SGC had simply taken their families and left, letting someone know how to save everyone if they could because no one was listening to them as usual.

Meanwhile they had gone on various bounty hunting expeditions which Jack was unsurprisingly extremely good at. In between missions Sam had fiddled with the sublights on the ship that was called the Zhuàn lún and got their efficiency as optimal as she could manage under the circumstances.

They had fallen into a routine of falling asleep wrapped in each other's arms, as much for comfort in this situation as anything else. Neither had made a move, fearing the rejection of the other and both hesitated to bring it up for fear of having misread the situation and scaring the other off.

Sam still didn't know what had happened to the Gate. Her instruments had assured her that they did not detect naquadah and her body agreed which meant no gate but the odds of them coming out of a wormhole into a planet that was safe with no gate were ridiculously astronomical in nature as to be nearly impossible. The only answer Sam could come up with that didn't make ice run through her veins was that the Gate was somehow out of phase which was why they had been unconscious when they came through. Some fail safe in the Gate must have popped them out anyway and it was right there, just not in their capability to perceive it. She would have to find or cobble the parts to make a phase shifter and see if she could find the frequency it was on or find another gate. For all she knew they had dragged the thing with them after all, thinking it was somehow important but not knowing how it worked. If either was the case they needed a DHD and a way to predict solar flares.

Jack pulled out their worn deck of cards that had been nearly new when they got there. "Spades?"

Sam shrugged. They were both tired of the ship they were on. Captain Gus wasn't one for shore leave unless it was to make a profit and Sam and Jack both felt they wouldn't be very wise to draw attention to themselves by being too social. Being a married couple was an excellent cover they had used before to maintain privacy so they perpetuated the same myth here.

Jack had scored her a small desk to work at which she greatly appreciated and was sitting at fiddling with a doohickey when he got out the cards. "Gin?" she suggested.

"Sure." He told her agreeably. He slid her hand across the bed and her fingers lingered on his as she took her cards. Jack looked up from their hands and into her eyes that were dark with desire. He dropped the rest of the cards on the floor and in seconds hands were pulling at clothing as their tongues fought for dominance. It was as if weeks of close contact had finally shattered the seal on their bottled up emotions and neither could stop the drenching sensation of desire and love washing over them though neither said the words. They were past words anyway. They broke contact only to sweep each other's shirts away then melted back into each other, skin to skin within seconds, hands exploring skin once memorized, seeking out scars that were not present previously. "Sam." he breathed her name like a benediction.

"Jack." She sighed and kissed along his jaw line to his ear where she started to nibble.

"Are you sure?" He leaned back a little and stroked his thumb along her cheek, forcing her eyes to meet his.

Sam let out a low chuckle and lifted her hips to press hard against his own making him let out a lust-filled groan. "Why don't you pull my pants down and find out if I'm as ready for you as you are me." She suggested.

He knew though, because she'd been like this, years ago, even though they had to be silent or get caught and punished when they were on P3R-118, and hadn't known who they really were or they wouldn't have crossed that line in the first place. He'd expected to need to stoke the fire at the time, only to find she was as turned on by kissing him as he'd been by kissing her. She knew he knew too.

Jack growled against her neck where her hair had grown out past her shoulders and loose curls escaped her braid and he made quick work of her military issue belt and shoved her pants around her knees. "Samantha." He groaned as he trailed kisses down her neck and nuzzled the soft mounds of her breasts until he found a tight hard nipple that he drew into his mouth and stroked it with his hot wet tongue until she was writhing under him with need, her hips bumping against his and her hands fumbling at his waistband, trying to free him from the confines of his BDUs.

"Jack." His name was a shuddering needy moan as she yanked down his pants roughly.

"I don't have any protection." Jack admitted as his fingers slid through the curls between her legs.

Sam shook her head. "I know my cycle. I'm not ovulating."

"I'm not against the idea." Jack admitted.

"Me either but not here, not unless we really can't get home." But the last word came out a sharp breathless squeak as his thumb stroked the soft nub in her folds.

Jack chuckled and slid a pair of fingers into her and deftly stroked her until she was writhing mindlessly on the bed.

A loud repetitive banging started on their berth door. "Ship meeting in ten!" Pog bellowed through their door.

"Ah fer cryin out loud." Jack grumbled and claimed her mouth in a punishing kiss. "We should get washed up or everyone is going to know I was about to turn you into a puddle of goo." He told her with a grin and a peck on her nose that she wrinkled at him in pique.

"Speak for yourself. I was going to nail you so hard you forgot your own name." She told him saucily and arched her hips against his body, sliding herself, hot and slick against his erection.

Jack groaned. "Pog has terrible timing." He groused and got off her before he changed his mind and they missed half the meeting because they were having their own rodeo.

Sam snorted in amused agreement and headed for the head to wash up, still coiled tight with need for the tall graying man who shared her bed and held her heart.

A few minutes later Jack and Sam stood in the hold while Gus described their next assignment. Jack finally protested. "Wait, let me get this right, you want us to break into an Alliance stronghold to steal tech and this guy is in charge?" He demanded pointing at Griffin who, while competent, didn't have Jack's background in special ops against military installations.

"Yes, O'Neill because he's got seniority. Now you can shut up or I'll assign you a new partner too." Gus growled at him.

"No one guards my six but Carter." Jack snarled and started forward but stopped when Sam put a hand on his arm and caught his eye. They had a silent conversation and finally, Jack backed off.

"Any other questions? No? Good. Moving on." Gus told them and continued describing their mission.

Sam kept a hand on Jack's arm to remind him to hold his tongue.


	6. Plan A Never Works

**Chapter 5 – Plan A Never Works**

"Griffin, where are you?" Jack hissed into the speaker of their transmitter.

Static punctuated his words when Griff replied. "We're pinned down. Have you got the stuff?"

Jack looked at Carter who nodded firmly. They had what the captain wanted and some things she recognized as useful for her own projects as Gus rarely let anyone off ship. "We got the equipment but we're pinned down too." Jack admitted. There were too many Alliance agents between them and the exit and they had lasers. How did the freakin' Alliance have lasers and everyone else had pistols Jack harrumphed in his head.

"Carter, stay down, I'm going to try to come around the back and take a few of these guys out."

Sam narrowed her eyes at him but nodded. It wasn't his best idea but they were swiftly running out of options as Alliance agents boiled into the research facility. Griff had blown it. This should have been a small quiet op and he'd gone in guns blazing like a rodeo star. Jack was pissed. Now he and Sam were pinned in the back of the building with no backup because half the team was dead and the rest would be soon including them if he didn't get them out of this.

Jack got the drop on the agents in the back and took a few out but they were outnumbered fifteen to one and in spite of Sam's ability to drill enemies with impunity she was winged by one of the stun weapons and Jack was unable to polish them off before he was hit himself.

An Alliance guard raised his weapon to shoot Sam in the head and Jack yelled. "Wait! Don't kill her! She's valuable."

"Valuable how?" The guard growled.

"This is a research facility right? She's a scientist and she knows how to build a hyperdrive." He insisted.

"What in the tā mā de is a hyperdrive?" He asked, sounding annoyed.

"Faster than light ship drive."

"Ain't no one can build one of those boss. Let's kill them both." One of the other guards said.

"Nah, we'll see what the boss says." He motioned for the remaining guards to bind her wrists behind her.

"What about this one?" a guard asked the man in charge.

"He's my husband. I won't cooperate if you kill him." Sam announced and stared Jack down willing him not to contradict her.

"Fine, restrain him too." He said with a disgusted shrug.

Sam and Jack were cuffed then shot with stun guns and dragged out of the room.

* * *

They woke up in a cell, their backs braced against each other and Jack chuckled ruefully. "Well. Some things never change do they Carter?"

"No sir." She agreed laughing.

"Husband?" He raised an eyebrow worthy of Teal'c as he leaned his head back against hers.

She shrugged. "You may as well be at this point and I didn't have a lot of time to think up a story."

"What about the cop?"

Sam didn't say anything for a long while.

"Sam?"

"Jack, six hours ago we were inches from me throwing that in the toilet and flushing. What do you think?"

"Sam, I don't want you making any snap decisions just because you're worried we might not get home." He said in a tired tone as though he'd rehearsed it a thousand times in his head.

But Sam just chuckled and shook her head.

"What's so funny?" He grumped.

"Jack, I tried to tell you almost a year ago that I wanted to be with you and you cut me off and admonished me for calling you Jack at work."

"I did?" He sounded confused because he was.

"The Prometheus." She reminded him.

"Oh. That." He said in a confused tone. "We were at work."

"So?"

"You can't just declare your feelings for me in the infirmary Carter, and then you never said anything else about it, you went out with the cop."

"You got your head sucked and you stopped me again." She reminded him.

"I don't even remember half the stuff that happens to me when I get my head sucked." He reminded her in a combative tone. "Besides what was going to happen next? I die and now you're alone except you would have dumped the cop because of it and –"

"Ha! So you DO remember." She declared triumphantly.

"Well of course I remember that part Carter. It's kind of the last thing I remember until Thor woke me up actually."

"You said goodbye. You didn't think we'd get you out of stasis in our lifetimes. I.." She wanted to tell him her heart died that day with him. That she'd only continued dating Pete because the man she loved who had said goodbye in Alteran with his heart in his eyes was dead for all intent and she didn't have enough of herself left to protect herself from Pete's emotional manipulation and no Janet to reason with her either.

"Sam." He sighed tiredly.

"No Jack. We've been doing this for years now and every time I try to talk to you about it you shut me down."

"I shut _you_ down? Who was the one who wanted to keep it in the room?" He demanded.

"That's not fair Jack!"

"No? I sat there and looked in your eyes and told you _exactly_ how I feel about you and you ten minutes later admitted the exact same thing and then you wanted to act like it never happened and that's fine but don't you dare say this is about me not wanting you because I've wanted you for years and you know it." He hop scooted until he could look her in the eyes so she could see the hurt and anger in his that mixed with his unguarded love for her.

She looked up at him, her eyes swimming with unshed tears.

"Ah shit." He cursed and tugged at the binders wishing he had a lock pick but they had been stripped of their tools including the more subtle ones. "Sam, the timing was bad. We couldn't be together and do our jobs and we both knew that. The rest of it," He sighed. "I screwed up Sam. I should have realized you might think my feelings had changed if I didn't say anything for a long time. I just... Sam, I didn't want you sticking around and waiting on me because I'm a pathetic loser carrying a torch for one of his best friends."

"Oh Jack." She said and sniffled. "You aren't the only pathetic one. I only kept dating Pete because I thought you were dead."

"You kept dating Pete after I wasn't dead." He told her mystified.

"Well, yes, but you were so different towards me after that and I'd already been dating Pete a while and didn't know how to end it without hurting his feelings."

"You kept dating him to be… nice?"

"I told you I was pathetic." She admitted.

Jack shook his head. "C'mere." He said nudging his head back and forth in a beckoning motion.

Sam scooted over until she was close enough for him to wrap his legs around her and lean his head on her shoulder.

"When we get out of this particular mix up we really need to talk Carter." He gently brushed his lips along the column of her throat and smiled at the needy little sigh it elicited from her.

"I think there's something else we need to do more Jack." She said as she shivered under his light touch.

Jack hummed in agreement as his lips explored her skin. Realistically if the rest of the team was dead as they suspected, Gus wouldn't be back for them. He'd cut his losses and take on new crew. If they got out of this they would have to track him down on their own and hope he hadn't tossed their stuff. Sam kept her GDO on her but they had a spare in his pack. Old habits died hard with SG-1. The rest of the grey ugly cells were utterly empty much to Jack's regret. He didn't think Griff was a good choice for leader but he hadn't wanted the man or their other companions to die either.

Heavy boots echoed down the corridor before they saw the Alliance guards. Both Sam and Jack stiffened.


	7. Another Frying Pan

**Chapter 6 – Another Frying Pan**

"Well, what have we here? You don't look like Browncoats." The tall man in uniform said to Jack and Sam in a pedestrian voice.

"Because we're not." Jack growled at the uniformed man in front of him.

"Ah. Common trash then. Anders, bring the woman." He said.

"Over my dead body." Jack growled.

"Hm, ah yes, I was told you are the husband. Very well. Bring them both. The magistrate would like to hear more about your wife's scientific skills." He told them.

"Great." Jack huffed and Sam gently elbowed him in the ribs.

The doors were slid open and Sam was lifted from the circle of Jack's legs and Jack was similarly pulled to his feet.

"Hey, I'm not into the rough stuff." Jack protested. Which made Sam choke on a laugh.

"Shut your gorram mouth." The guard said as he shoved Jack again.

"Well that's just rude." Jack huffed and had the satisfaction of watching Sam stare studiously at the ceiling for a moment to get her laughter under control.

They were marched through the facility past curious scientists however until they reached an area of the building that was clearly administrative. The guards dragged them past a reception area without so much as a word to the desk clerk and kept going.

Eventually they came to a large dark wood door manned by two guards. "Tell the administrator we have the prisoners." The guard who appeared to be in charge told one of the grunts by the door.

The guard said something into his collar transmitter and a few moments later the door opened. Sam and Jack were roughly pushed inside and the door and it closed with an ominous click.

The man behind the desk was slim and well groomed. He wore a uniform unadorned by medals or anything to indicate his rank but he gave off a quiet authority the guards did not.

He waved a hand at the chairs in front of his desk and Jack and Sam were roughly pressed into them. "Release their binders."

"Sir, these are dangerous criminals."

The man at the desk stood and walked around the desk. He came in front of Jack and Sam and sat on the edge of his desk looking casually at the two of them. Then he looked up at the guard. "Captain, I believe I gave you an order." He said mildly in an urbane tone that had shades of British in it.

"Sir, they killed twenty of my men apiece. I strongly caution you—"

"Save me the theatrics Captain. They killed your men because you cornered them and they are highly trained military." He smiled affably at Jack. "Aren't you?"

Jack gave the man an innocent look that made the administrator chuckle. "Release them then leave us." The administrator ordered. "Unless you prefer the soup line."

The Captain glowered but motioned for a guard to unlock Sam and then Jack's binders and remove them.

"Good. You may go."

Once the captain and his men had left the administrator stood and went over to a cabinet that apparently was a bar. "I don't know about either of you but I could use a drink." He said as he took down a couple bottles and mixed himself a drink. "Would either of you like one?" He asked them. When Jack and Sam shook their heads, he grabbed a couple bottles of water and brought them each one.

He smiled a little at them for looking at the bottles suspiciously. "I assure you it's just water. If what you told my people is true, I need you both alive and very healthy, don't I?"

"With all due respect," Sam said, "What is it that you want?"

"Well," the man said, consideringly, "It seems I can offer you a mutually beneficial arrangement."

"Which is?" Jack growled. Sam put a hand on his arm lightly and the Administrator smiled a little. If he doubted their story he didn't now. Such a subtle gesture of admonishment was one breed only by long familiarity.

"Your companions are all dead I'm sorry to say. My staff has a zero tolerance policy for such things. You would be too had you not made the claim you did about your wife's scientific capabilities. Tell me, now is it that you have scientific knowledge that the Alliance does not?"

"We aren't from around here." Jack said vaguely.

"Yes, I gathered that." He replied thoughtfully. "Oh where are my manners, my name is Administrator Leonis. You may call me Leo and I am told that you my dear know how to build a faster than light space drive."

"What's in it for us if she can?" Jack said with a scowl.

"While I understand your protectiveness of your lovely wife, please allow her to speak for herself." Leo told Jack firmly. Sam carefully hid her amusement at both men.

"What my husband is so bluntly stating is still true, what do we have to gain from this ourselves?"

"Ah, I see. You believe yourselves in a position to bargain. Let me assure you, that is not the case. Either you can give us your scientific knowledge of your free will and we will house you in pleasant accommodations or you can choose to defy us in which case you will still give us your knowledge and your accommodations will not be… pleasant." Leo told them.

Option three, Jack thought, was I snap your neck right here. He looked at Sam though and asked her with his eyes what she wanted to do. He'd help her as much as he could but she was the one who understood the math on this one. Jack had a sturdy grasp of the engineering aspects of hyperdrives and he suspected the repositories seemed to like him specifically because he was especially good at cobbling solutions together with bailing wire and chewing gum on the fly but while he was no slouch at math, the kind of things Sam worked on were well past his abilities and he knew it even if he did love listening to her try to explain it to him.

Sam thought about the situation for a long moment, considering all their options and finally looked in his eyes and confirmed she'd play ball for now.

Leo noted their silent conversation with amusement. He'd had that with his first wife prior to her untimely death. They had not needed words. Perhaps he'd free them once he had her knowledge. Their regard for each other was genuine and by their ages he might be orphaning a few kids if he didn't.

"What do you have in mind?" Sam asked.

"You will be given housing, meals, and reasonable entertainment. In exchange you will take however long you need to create an FTL drive for our ships."

"I'm glad you said however long I need. You don't have some of the technology I need so I'll have to either work around the problem or invent some new things first." Sam told him bluntly.

"There you see. And in the meantime you will have your own lab, the help of however many technicians you need, a stipend for your clothing and other needs and a comfortable life." He agreed.

Jack didn't have the heart to tell the guy that Sam would never submit to living in a cage the rest of her life for the price of a lab when she had a far superior one at home not to mention the run of the entire gate system.

Sam appeared to think about it but Jack knew she'd made her decision. Access to Alliance technology and knowledge would tell her if the wrist device Cassie used or something similar was here. Hell they might have a puddle jumper for all Jack knew. He doubted it, but it could be a thing.

"All right, we'll do it."

"My dear, this offer is for you and you alone."

"No. Either my husband stays with me at all times or you can just go ahead and kill us both because he doesn't have the math skills to do it himself and I won't cooperate without him." Sam said, her eyes narrowed as she looked up at the man.

Leo laughed. "Is she always this fierce?"

"Almost always." Jack said with a note of pride in his voice.

"She fears nothing. Not even death." Leo observed.

But Jack knew in his heart there was one thing Sam feared and if Leonis figured it out, he'd use it to control her. Jack could be controlled the same way though. They would have to be careful.

"Then it is settled. I will arrange for your accommodations." He went back behind his desk and called someone to have a brief conversation. When he was finished he smiled at them both. "Come. You will dine with myself and the magistrate tonight and then go to your new home."

"Like we have any choice." Jack muttered under his breath.

* * *

After a long uncomfortable meal with Leo and some of his cronies who peppered Sam with questions, they were driven to a small two story home near the research facility. It looked vaguely Germanic on the outside but was somewhat modern inside. Not exactly Jack's taste, Sam decided, but not the worst. She looked around and tilted her head slightly before taking Jack's hand and drawing him through the house and up the stairs.

"Sam?" He asked her, his expression troubled. She shook her head minutely.

"I really need a shower Jack. So do you."

"But we don't have any clean clothes Sam." He said perplexed.

Sam answered him by moving close to him and pulling him into an embrace before tilting her face into his neck to whisper, "Leaa secu time." Then nuzzled his neck as though she was seducing him.

"Keka nokiak?" knowing she'd know he meant their time in the prison.

Sam shrugged and continued leading him to the bedrooms until they found the master bedroom with an attached shower. She turned on the water and sighed. "If they find it or have the one from Earth and figure out how to use it like we did they are going to find out how very not alone they are." She told him softly.

"That's assuming they can get a lock. We struggled without Daniel to translate it." He replied just loud enough for her to hear him but not loud enough to be picked up if the bathroom was bugged.

"I feel like we shouldn't be doing this for them because they are too much like colonial England. Not quite take over the world mentality but they definitely think they have a right to control everyone."

"Ok, so do your job as slowly as you can and in the meantime try to find the stuff you need to get us home." He thought for a moment. "If we can't get our GDO back we'll have to go to Chulak or Alpha first."

"Jack, if we can't figure out how to get back to our own time, we might have to go to the Nox and ask them for help."

"Do you think they have that kind of tech?"

Sam chuckled and shook her head. "For such a smart guy sometimes you really pull off the dumb routine."

Jack smirked. "I had Daniel convinced for years that I was an idiot until you came along."

Sam grinned at him. She knew playing dumb was one of his favorite games. He'd even fooled her at first. "Let's get a shower. We both stink and my hair feels gross."

"Is that a scientific term Carter?" He teased her.

"It's a 'do you want to rub soap on my naked body or not' term Jack."

Jack looked at her rather flabbergasted by her forward comment as she wasn't usually so obvious in her intent.

Sam started tugging off her dirty, sweat stained clothing until she was wearing nothing at all. "Are you joining me or not?" She finally prompted him when he just stood there staring openly at her. Sam stepped into the shower.

Jack shook his head as though trying to clear it, scrubbed a hand through his hair then hurriedly stripped out of his clothes as well and stepped into the shower with the woman he loved.

"Took you long enough." She told him and handed him a sponge filled with soap before presenting her back as though they had done this thousands of times.

Jack dropped the sponge and pulled her against him under the water. They would bathe but first he'd claim this woman he loved body and soul.


	8. Endless Tedium

**Chapter 7 – Endless Tedium**

The next morning Jack woke to Sam stretching like a cat against him. They had made love in the shower, washed each other's hair and skin then dried off only to tumble onto the bed and make love again. By mutual agreement they decided since the house was bugged they may as well give whoever was listening a free show. They would either bore of slightly theatrical sex or forget to pay attention when they were not having sex.

They found a washing machine after round two and had dumped everything they'd worn into it, not even caring that no one had thought to get them soap either and gone back to bed to just hold each other until they fell asleep.

"I should go put that stuff in the dryer." He told her the next morning after they woke but his hands caressed her silky skin and his lips found a spot at the base of her neck that made her shudder and press into him. "Or we could do this again." He chuckled.

Sam sighed heavily. "We should probably dry our clothes first… but that will probably take about an hour?"

"Hmmm... good point. Be right back." He told her and bounded out of bed knowing she was admiring the view.

Sam lay there after he left feeling thoroughly sated. Pete hadn't been bad in bed but it wasn't fair to compare the men. Even trying not to get punished for what they had been doing while mind stamped, Jack had been a better lover. Uninhibited, however, he was equally creative as he was thorough. Sam was pretty sure if they made love this morning she was going to walk funny part of the day. She was game if he was.

Jack returned moments later and slid between the sheets to pull Sam against him and started nibbling on whatever skin was nearest.

Sam giggled.

"Stop that." He admonished her as he stroked the sensitive skin over her ribs just under her breasts.

"Sorry, that tickles." She said laughing.

"Does it now." He murmured and his fingers slid across her belly and between her legs as his lips explored her back.

"Jack." She sighed with desire. Somewhere in the back of her mind she realized how rare it was that she was ready for this man to make love to her again. What it meant about her feelings that going years without had changed nothing, being apart months at a time had not affected her feelings, even being with someone else and thinking Jack was dead changed nothing. More than one hopeful had failed to turn her head for any length of time because it always came back to this man. The only one who had come close was Orlin and he'd been the only one Jack might have let her go for as well because he'd genuinely loved her for herself.

Before things could get further than tender touches and lust filled sighs, the front door buzzed. "Oh come on." Jack groused. Sam chuckled.

"I'm sure it's someone to take us to work. That might be a problem without any clothes."

"What if we pretend we aren't here?" He asked her hopefully.

"I'm fairly certain they know we are dear." She told him affectionately. "Go answer the door."

"Ugh. Fine." He told her in a long suffering tone.

Sam gave him a quick kiss and headed for the laundry room. They had pulled all the curtains before they turned on any lights and she hadn't found any cameras. Just the recording devices and only because they had, of all things, naquadah running the batteries. Sam shook her head just thinking about it. Leave it to humans to find the most useless application for an energy source that could change their lives forever.

Jack yanked the top sheet off the bed and wrapped it around his torso to go answer the door." If it's the Avon lady, she's getting a punch in the nose." He declared to her retreating back and stomped down the stairs, his body language that of a clearly frustrated man.

Jack yanked open the front door and snarled "What?"

A young man in a lab coat timidly held up a package. "I'm terribly sorry to interrupt. I was told to bring over clothing and lab coats then wait for you to be ready to go to work as you don't have a vehicle yet."

Jack scowled which made the kid quake in his shoes. "Fine. Have a seat. Carter and I will be down in a bit. Need a shower first." He snarled and stomped back up the stairs.

"If they don't fit we can get you something different at the facility." The young man called after him helpfully.

Jack muttered something under his breath the kid didn't catch but thought sounded like 'was gonna get laid.' And he blushed. Administrator Leonis had said the new scientist was married. He had not said he was also irritable and crude.

"Carter." Jack barked. "Our ride is here." He dropped the clothes on the bed and the sheet on the floor and stomped naked to the bathroom and yanked on the water.

Sam came back, their moderately clean clothing in her arms and watched mystified as her lover angrily stalked completely nude to the bathroom. "Jack?" she asked as she followed him into the bathroom and looked at him in concern.

He wheeled and grabbed her upper arms when he almost knocked her over and backed her against the door before claiming her mouth as he pressed against her. When they both needed air he released her mouth and waited until she opened her eyes to look at him. "I have waited years. Years for you to take me as your lover again and every time I try to show you how much I love you, have always loved you, we get interrupted." He told her scowling in frustration.

"You have?"

"Well of course I have Sam. We've just always been in a situation that I was positive we'd be out of soon or one of us would be dead."

Sam stood there looking at him as though he were a math problem she couldn't quite figure out.

"Shit. And now I've fucked it all up. I'm sorry Sam. I should have kept my mouth shut." His expression shuttered and he started to turn away as he released her arms.

Sam grabbed his fingers though and tugged. Jack turned and looked at her. "When you stopped me from telling you how I feel, I thought all you wanted was my body, and, I could live with that, but I'm glad it was just you protecting yourself." She told him softly.

Jack turned completely and pulled her back into his arms. "It wasn't me I was protecting Carter. The Air Force looks the other way when it's just sex all the time. Hammond has known for years about what's going on with us. But other people weren't going to and it would ruin your career. I don't want you to resent me loving you because I wrecked your life." He sighed and buried his face in her hair.

Sam tilted her head away and looked up at him. "He has?"

"I tried to resign after the Zatrag test thingy." He told her.

"Zar'tak." She corrected him with an amused smile knowing full well he knew how to say the word correctly. "He wouldn't let you?"

"Not only would he not let me, he told me he was surprised it took us that long to admit how we felt and that he'd known for a couple years already but saw that we had things under control and to just do what worked for us but keep it quiet and off the base."

"He what?!" Sam almost shouted at Jack.

"Keep your voice down." Jack murmured as he pulled her under the water.

"Uncle George has known all along, he gave you permission to be with me as long as we were discreet and you are just now telling me this because why?" she demanded in an angry hiss.

"Because I wouldn't have been able to stay discreet. I'm already in your lab half the day pretending to work when really I'm just hanging out with my girlfriend and literally the whole base knows that's what I'm doing. If I gave in and talked you into my bed I wouldn't have kept my hands to myself at work and I know it. I can barely keep my hands to myself at home." Jack admitted.

Sam looked at him thoughtfully. How many times on team night had they woken up the next morning snuggled on the couch together, covered in whichever blanket Teal'c had found for them after they fell asleep, arms wrapped tightly around each other. How many of those mornings had she pretended to still be asleep at predawn while he stroked her back and kissed her temple and softly called her 'my Samantha'. So many times she'd lost count and yet it still felt sweet, like the blush of new love each time he'd done it.

Sam tugged him down by his shoulders and kissed him softly at first. Silent acknowledgement that she understood what he'd been trying to do however misplaced his motives were. She drew away a moment under the water. "Jack, if there was a way to be together legally, without having to sneak around, would you want to?" She asked him.

"Who with?" He joked which earned him a swat across his chest.

"Would you?"

"Sam, if the regs weren't in the way, I'd have asked you to marry me years ago." He admitted.

Sam nodded thoughtfully. "It may not matter if we can't get home but I would too. Let me talk to Uncle George and find out if there's a way around this mess." She told him.

"Do you really trust him to be discreet?"

Sam gave Jack a patronizing sneer.

"Ok, yah, it's Hammond…"

"Then it's settled. If we get home, I'm fixing this Jack, because I love you and I don't want to wait for the Goa'uld war to end before I can be with you. Even if it means I have to leave SG-1 or they force you to retire."

Jack sighed. "I don't want you to leave SG-1."

"And I don't want to leave it either but we may have to choose."

"I would never make you do that Sam."

Sam tilted her head and smiled softly. "I know you wouldn't Jack. That's what's been holding you back all this time and it's my decision to make. Daniel is a civilian." She pointed out.

"So are most of the rest of the geeks." Jack admitted.

"So, it might be time for me to choose my heart finally." She wrapped her arms around his neck and drew him against the wall until she was pressed firmly between the cool tiles and his warm skin. "Now make love to me quickly. We need to get dressed for work." She ordered him.

"Yes ma'am" he told her with an enthusiastic grin and pulled both her legs up around his waist and followed orders.

* * *

Downstairs, a lab technician who Jack never did get the name of sat on the couch blushing furiously at the sudden sounds of enthusiastic love making coming from the shower upstairs.


	9. Results May Vary

**Chapter 8 – Results May Vary**

Sam at least cared enough to get the kid's name which was Christian Matthews. He was really low on the hierarchy at the lab so he got assigned stupid things to do like drive visiting scientists around and fetch lunch. He had no idea Jack and Sam were even prisoners. They agreed with a look to say nothing on the matter unless it was brought up. Sam found however that he had a good head for physics and wasn't married to nationalism which was a totally different thing than being patriotic. She and Jack exchanged a conspiratorial look.

"Christian, I'll be heading up a new group soon. Would you like to join it?"

"You ma'am? I thought your husband was the scientist" Christian told her.

Jack chuckled. "I'm just here to fetch coffee."

The kid looked at Jack in his rearview mirror and tried to figure out if Jack was joking.

Jack wasn't but the laughter in his eyes made that unclear.

"Your employers don't seem invested in using your skills to their best application. I'm an astrophysicist and I'll be working on improving your space travel capabilities."

"I don't have any seniority." The young man told her in resignation as if that was answer enough.

"I worked on one of my country's top programs when I wasn't much older than you and helped solve one of their biggest mathematical problems. Seniority had nothing to do with it. I was damned good at my job and only missed the first mission because my boss was a sexist ass not because of my rank." Sam told him.

"What job was that ma'am?"

"It's classified." Jack told him. "I was on that first mission though. Her calculations were what got us there and home too."

"Daniel got you home." She said pointedly.

"With your math. All he did was translate the symbols so he could make the calculations." Jack reminded her.

"Um, I don't mean to interrupt but you're going to do what?"

"Make your ships faster kid. A _lot_ faster." Jack said grinning.

"How?"

"By breaking the laws of physics." Jack said grinning at Sam who had saved his sorry ass a few times doing just that.

"Is he serious?"

"Like a heart attack." Sam told the boy driving their land speeder. A name that had made Jack roll his eyes and given Sam a fit of giggles, neither of which they explained to their unfortunate driver who was beet red when they came down dressed and wearing mutually silly grins.

They reached the science facility on the outskirts of town quickly as they could see it poking above the tree-line from their house.

"We'll have to check in at the front desk your first day but after that you will have key cards for the facility and will be able to enter near your labs rather than walking the whole complex. I'm supposed to take you to the Administration offices first to see the director."

"Just lead the way." Jack told him.

"Yes sir." Matthews said and Sam stifled a laugh when Jack sighed.

"Dear, you ooze authority." She told him.

"So I'm 'dear' now, huh?" he said softly as he leaned towards her while they walked.

"I could go back to 'sir' if you like?" She teased and gave him her fake innocent look, widening her large blue eyes further.

"You don't play fair." He complained.

Sam linked her fingers into his. "If I did we'd still be fighting."

"Ah. Yes, there is that." He said with a pensive frown but he didn't pull his hand away while they continued down the hall. Jack realized he'd been had but he honestly didn't care. He still believed she could get them home but the way they did so was going to depend on so many factors that it could be several more months or more. They were prisoners of the Alliance on a planet named, of all things, Ra Amiran. It was a core planet in what they called the 'verse and had mostly mining and science facilities.

Sam had discovered they were in a star cluster, most likely somewhere in Taurus and designated 34Tauri which couldn't be a coincidence, but which system exactly in Taurus she'd still been working on when they were captured. Jack was hoping she could hack into their main computers discreetly and find out. If it was a gate they knew about they could get home. If it was outside the gate system they knew of, she'd have to find out exactly where they were first. They should have popped out in the Pleiades somewhere but apparently the zap had been hard enough to make them spin off to another system entirely somehow. On the upside Jack and Sam both had a couple gate addresses memorized. If they could uncloak or unphase or whatever was done to the gate on the planet they landed on they could at least get to people they knew like the Nox or even Alpha site if it was still occupied. Somewhere with more advanced technology that might help them get home if Sam had access to it.

Jack's current main concern was watching Carter's six so she could focus on her work. No hardship there. She'd have to give him busy work though as he didn't have mission reports to write while hanging out in her lab now and he really doubted they were going to trust a supposed prisoner with that sort of thing. Not yet anyway.

They reached the reception desk they had been marched past yesterday and the secretary who had been ignored looked at them in utter shock at first that they were now here looking as if they had not been dragged by in cuffs less than ten hours ago.

"Doctor Carter and her husband, Doctor O'Neill, to see the Administrator." Christian told the receptionist in a crisp voice that would have made a CO proud.

"He's expecting you." She told them once she recovered from her shock.

"Did you tell them I'm a doctor?" Jack hissed at Sam.

"Isn't that what your engineering degree says?" She asked him with a sly smile.

"You hacked my personnel file?" his shocked ton was farcical.

"No. Uncle George told me." She informed him smugly.

"I'm going to throttle him." Jack told her and Sam struggled with a giggle.

"Don't worry, Daniel still thinks you're an idiot."

"Good. I'm saving it for a special occasion." Jack said with a tight smile. Advancing his degree had been a sort of hobby between assignments, much of which he'd gained while telecommuting his classes. He'd kept at it until his Bachelor's had become a Master's and then a Doctorate for no other reason then he'd been bored after his divorce.

They had reached the Administrator's door and Christian let the guards know they were there for an appointment. One of the guards opened the door without a word and waved all three of them in.


	10. Weren't We Just Here?

**Chapter 9 – Weren't We Just Here?**

"Ah Doctors Carter and O'Neill. On time too, I see. Excellent."

Jack put his head down and consciously wiped a smile from his face before looking up again.

"We have arranged for lab space for you and you will be given personnel files to pick from for your staff. If there is a need not met and we have someone with the qualifications and clearance available we will try to accommodate you."

"Administrator Leonis, I'd like to request Matthews as an assistant."

"Ah. Making friends already, eh?"

"You might say that." Jack groused.

"Why him?" Leonis asked Sam.

"He's young enough to just do what he's told and not argue." Sam told Leonis. That was not the reason but it was the reason a man like the Administrator would believe.

"A good quality in a servant." Leonis agreed. "He's already your driver, if you want him as a lab assistant he's yours. He will not be paid overtime however simply because he's doing both jobs."

Sam looked at Christian and gave him a small nod.

The kid gave her a thoughtful look before nodding back.

"Great, you have yourself a lab monkey Carter." Jack said with a grin. "When do we start?"

"I'm also going to need access to any historical scientific data you have. There were scientists working on this stuff on earth and I'd like to be able to just start where they left off instead of reinventing the wheel." Sam told Leo.

The administrator appeared to think about it for a while. "I believe that may be arranged. You will need access to the museum's records, most of which are public record and I will grant you access to our aerospace information as well."

"Thank you sir." She told him.

"If that's all, I'll take you to your new lab. I assume your first order of business will be to find out what you need to modify first."

"Good guess." Jack said under his breath and Sam gently elbowed him in the ribs. He gave her a mild look for her aggrieved frown which made her roll her eyes.

Leonis chuckled softly. "I am not easily offended, my dear. If you can deliver on your husband's boasts, he can be as difficult as he likes."

Sam huffed out a sigh. "Don't tell him that. He'll take you up on it sir."

Leonis chuckled harder. "Come, you have work to do, all three of you." He led them back to the lab area to a mid-sized room. "You will share this space and begin here. As you make progress on your project we will move you up to a larger lab as needed. Computers will be brought in. If you have difficulty with the interface I'm certain young Christian can be of assistance to you. Someone from personnel will be by with a selection of potential staff. Choose who you believe you may need."

Some of the scientists in the room looked at them in curiosity. Jack rudely stared back until Sam discreetly tugged his sleeve.

"This is fine. I won't need much room at the beginning." Sam told him.

"Then I wish you luck. You will attend a weekly meeting with myself or one of my staff on your progress. Your husband is welcome to attend with you if you so wish."

Sam just nodded. Christian was powering up the two computers they had already been allotted.

"We will have more units brought in." Leonis told them and left without another word.

Jack clapped his hands together. "Well, let's get to work."

Sam smiled and shook her head. "Christian, why don't you show us how to access your archives."

"Of course Doctors."

She grinned and shook her head. "Sam is fine Christian."

"Oh, um, call me Chris then, ok?" the kid said shyly and Jack rolled his eyes at Sam making another conquest.

"All right. Let's get to work then." She told him with a smile and sat down at one of the computers. "How do I get to old earth tech on this database?"

* * *

A month later Sam had found a couple more lab techs that were being under valued in their work. Her natural tendency towards just being a nice person secured their loyalty as did her fair treatment of their ideas. Jack spent most of his time amusing himself compiling their reports and making sure the documentation was up to date. There wasn't much design work he could help with yet as everything was still in a planning stage that was predominantly mathematical. Whatever confidence Sam had in his abilities; Jack was far more comfortable with concrete engineering than he was with theoretical anything.

"So from the looks of things, all record of crystal memory storage has been lost. We're going to have to invent a work around with silicone or some other methodology to store the massive amounts of data required to run one of these drivers. Chris, I want you to look into solid state memory storage possibilities." She waited until the dark haired boy nodded his head. "Jamie, Lorin, you need to get a hold of as much naquadah as you can. I don't care if you have to steal batteries to do it. We need it as an energy source. Jack, how well do you remember the schematics for a ZPM?"

Jack looked at her startled. "Me?"

"Yes, Jack, you. I need to work on finding an alternative for trinium unless it's listed as something else but so far I haven't found any metal listed that's comparable which means either records weren't kept of it or it's just not been available."

Jack looked at her, frowning thoughtfully. "I can try sketching out the specs I guess." He said with a shrug. What the hell. Did it really matter if he did a good job? He knew Sam would do her best either way but he also knew Sam knew he might make errors intentionally. Ohhh….

Jack raised an eyebrow at her. Sam smiled a little and nodded slightly.

"Ah." He said and frowned thoughtfully.

Lorin put her hand up. "Lorin, you don't need to raise your hand." Sam told her.

"Sorry ma'am. It's just - why naquadah instead of lithium?"

"Because lithium can't withstand the heat requirements of the energy storage. We'll eventually need it for the hull too but that's down the line."

"We don't have that much naquadah in the entire 'verse ma'am."

"Well, we really only need enough for one ship." Sam said.

Lorin looked at her quizzically. "There's -?"

"Other star systems with naquadah. Yes. And if we can reach them, we can mine the ore for more ships."

"How do you know this?"

Sam smiled and shook her head. "You found this planet, didn't you?" She told the girl. "Most stars have several planets." And on those planets are Stargates and if I could find Cassandra's wrist unit I could use it to go home, Sam thought to herself if she got access to something that would help her predict solar flares. She glanced at Jack and he was clearly thinking the same thing. Someone had to have figured out what happened to them eventually and tried to prepare for it somehow, especially if they had, in fact, found their way back.

"Why don't we go grab lunch, Carter?" Jack suggested. She had given the lab tech a lot to think about. It hadn't been their intention to begin a revolution but Jack knew if they filled these kids with too much hope that was exactly be what they were doing. The government here was as bad as Earth's had been in their own time which might be why the people here now had been abandoned to their fate by the men and women of the SGC.

He needed to discuss that with Carter tonight in the shower. Jack grinned to himself. There was something to be said for debriefing each other in the only setting they had privacy from the bugs in their living space which was under the cover of the sound of a shower running. He supposed they could have done so partially clothed, but someone might have noticed the wet underthings eventually if their home was being searched and he knew if he were the Alliance that's exactly what he'd be doing. Jack really didn't think that arrangement would have lasted long anyway. Sam had made it very clear that she was done waiting for the war to end to be with him. They would catch hell when they got home eventually but he honestly couldn't find a logical counter argument for her decision.

The most viable solution would be to ask Hammond to reassign her to Groom Lake for a project, get married then apply for a join spouse to get her back to the SGC. They should have thought of that solution years ago but both had been afraid to break up the team lest they not be able to watch each other's six in the field. Now that he was no longer supposed to be in the field anyway, it hardly mattered if she was his subordinate or not.

"What are you smiling about Jack?"

Jack gave her an innocent look. "Just looking forward to… lunch."

Sam chuckled and shook her head, knowing full well what he'd really meant. "I miss Jell-o." She told him and tugged gently at his sleeve. "If you guys want to take a break feel free to. We'll be in the café for about an hour." She told their lab techs, all of whom were fresh faced.

"Yes ma'am." Chris told her and went back to work. She had him running some math models on various metal alloys to see if they could come up with anything strong enough to withstand the rigors that would be required.

The other two were still convinced there was some sort of hierarchy involved in their decisions and went back to work with disappointed looks.

"Matthews." Jack barked.

"Sir?"

"Go eat. All three of you take a break and go eat." He ordered them.

"Yes sir." The kid said meekly.

Jack huffed and rolled his eyes.


	11. A Shower of Information

**Chapter 10 – A Shower of Information**

"I was thinking earlier how much more I enjoy debriefings with you while in the shower." Jack said in amusement while he scrubbed Sam's back for her.

"When was this?" Their voices were low out of habit. Just loud enough to hear each other, but not so loud that the listening device in their bathroom could pick up the conversation.

"Right before lunch." He told her grinning and nipped the skin at the base of her neck affectionately.

Sam turned and pinned his hands above his head on the tiled wall. "Work first." She reminded him and ignored the sight of warm water sluicing down his trim body as she regarded his smirk with amusement. He knew what he did to her but equally, she knew what she did to him as was evident by his physical state. "What have you managed to find out about the SGC?"

"Not much" he admitted, letting her continue to pin him. "There are some vague reference to the X-303 but they don't make any sense. I'm not sure if the files are corrupted or if they just didn't have more than cursory access to the program."

"How do you mean?"

"Well, there are a bunch of entries about the Prometheus but the part designations are wrong in a bunch of them. Now it could be a second ship but if it is, there's no record of what happened to the X-303."

"All right, keep digging, see if you can find the information or enough of it to know within reason. I'll spool it off as you are looking for shielding information that was developed decades before. It's close enough to the truth that they probably won't catch on, especially if I explain why you need better shielding when you go that fast."

Jack was amused that Sam could think as clearly as she was, while her body unconsciously responded to his own arousal. "So keep banging away at it until something pops out, huh?" He joked.

"Very funny." She snorted at his dirty joke. "I might have part of your answer. Several world leaders seem to have just disappeared at some point. They turned over the entire world government to the Alliance around 2050 or so. After that whole groups of them just seem to have disappeared."

"So they signed away everyone's life then abandoned them. Typical." Jack growled.

"I don't know that things went the way they might like. If they sent the world leaders and their families to Alpha site alone without civilian support…"

"They would have had to learn how to be normal." Jack grinned. "I changed my mind. I like this plan."

"I figured you might." She said laughing as she trailed her fingers through his chest hair, making him groan in delight. "Anyway, a completely random selection of military people seems to have fallen off the map around 2055 or so when they realized terraforming wasn't working anywhere but Mars and Mars had all kinds of inhospitable gravity issues. Once you live there a while you can't withstand Earth gravity for any length of time."

"Well, Mars is smaller." Jack said reasonably and ignored her exploring fingers.

"Exactly. It looks like someone leaked GMT to the general public intentionally when it became clear the Earth was dying. After that a few companies with a lot of political clout started building lifeboats on the government dime to get everyone moved. Some smaller world leaders resisted but it became very clear that there wasn't anything anyone could do at that point. The pollution and other problems were killing the planet and Mars couldn't sustain us."

"So the SGC people probably grabbed their families and left for Pegasus or some other friendly system and left everyone else a way to survive with Greenhouse Mitigated Terraforming other planets but not follow them."

"Exactly. I think they might have disabled the gate but left behind the tech needed to build large scale ships so humanity wouldn't feel like we'd killed them off." She said thoughtfully. "I'm still trying to find out what happened to the gate. Did they take it with them or leave it on Earth? If they took it with them where is it and why is the gate here undetectable but able to spit us out in an emergency. Someone must have intentionally hidden it, probably so we could check up on them periodically."

"Or they hid it figuring if they finally became advanced enough to find it they deserved to rejoin the galactic society as they did kill a planet after all." Jack pointed out to her.

"Fair point." She told him and slid her arms around his neck. "Are we done with the briefing… sir?" She purred at him.

Jack's eyes lit with the banked desire he had for her. She hadn't called him 'sir' in over half a year. Instead of annoying him as it had for years he felt a rush of lust. Sam carefully regulated their love life. She knew her cycle well. When there was no chance of her becoming pregnant she made love to him with the abandon of a woman who'd desired a man out of her reach for years. When there was a potential for her to get pregnant they became more creative or simply used that time to hold each other, the physical reassurance more vital to the changes in their relationship then the sexual release they now had.

Because she knew what time of the month it was, Sam pressed her slick wet body against Jack's and drew him down for a smoldering kiss.

Not one to argue with a lady, Jack pulled her hips against his own and turned them so she was pressed between the tiles and his body, leaving no room for doubt how he felt about having his arms full of a hot wet naked Carter.

With a delighted giggle Sam shimmied her hips against Jack's invitingly

Jack growled her name as his mouth trailed along her neck. He swatted at the faucet to turn it off. They would finish this business on the bed.


	12. Tedium

Chapter 11 – Tedium

More months passed. Jack relaxed a little in his concern for Sam's safety. Sam, however, still suspected that if they did not see her cooperation as hinging on Jack's safety, didn't let him out of her sight if it could be avoided. She rightfully didn't trust the Alliance's good faith and every meeting she attended with the Administrator and the other purse holders confirmed her suspicions. While Leonis himself was moderately tolerant of Jack's wry sense of humor, the rest of the board was not and yet she could not safely leave him in the lab as their people innocently informed them more than once that there was increased guard activity whenever there was a board meeting Jack and Sam were expected to attend.

Sam told them to just keep doing their jobs as was expected of them and only answer questions they were asked directly. As the status of the project was top secret, none of them questioned this edict.

It was a tedious afternoon of math models and Jack researching Alteran tech that wasn't listed as Alteran that he made a discovery. "Sam." He said in a thoughtful voice.

"What is it?"

"Come look at this." He said and waved vaguely at his monitor.

Sam got up from her station and stood behind Jack, resting one hand on his shoulder to lean in. Jack turned to watch her face for when she saw it. "Jack, that's…"

"Yah. Not likely to be a coincidence, is it?" He told her wryly.

"Why though?" She was perplexed.

"To send us a message?"

Sam looked at Jack. They were thinking the same thing. Whoever had named that ship had done so with intent. It was a message for them. Something on that ship or connected to it could get them home. "Find out everything you can." She told him and gently kissed his temple.

Jack grinned. "Yes Ma'am." He told her and got back to work with renewed interest in his search.

An unlisted scientist was credited with the design and implementation of the Ark Program but no information was given about why the drives had not been fitted for hyper space. The only conclusion Jack could come to was that because Earth had no naquadah of her own they had simply run out or stupidly used it all for bombs. There were rumors that a fleet of ships had predated the global Exodus Alliance but there was no record of where they had gone and the records of their design and building were either missing or were never in the archives to begin with.

If Jack was right, the people of SGC had most likely hidden the information, rightfully feeling that people who had destroyed one planet shouldn't be given access to do so with impunity. Confining them to a single star cluster until they grew up as a society would have satisfied the Nox, who would not have appreciated how destructive Earth humans were capable of being.

Sam had agreed that she was fairly certain the Nox were their best hope for getting home to their own time. If they could find a gate, any gate at all, they could go to them and get help or seek out the Tollan for their assistance. No Tollan alive now would know them but Nafrayu should still be alive though possibly as old as his grandfather was when they met him now. Jack would say that was their best bet and Sam had to agree, Lya's younger brother was their most likely ally in this situation. If they got the drive working and installed on a ship, they could always steal it.

That night he held her while they stood in the shower talking.

"This is the first time I've honestly believed we could do it." Sam admitted.

"Would you have seduced me if you had?"

"Would you have let me?" She countered. They were both guilty of choosing their love over their positions in this case. Did it matter their reasons? They had believed themselves trapped here and now the die was cast. Sam wasn't giving him up again.

Jack shrugged under the water. She had a point. He had let her seduce him, because he'd wanted her more than he'd wanted anyone in his adult life. At first he'd been ok with her dating the cop figuring it was just some kind of fling but then she kept dating him and Jack's heart had started to slowly turn to dust from the inside. Now that he had her to love, he wasn't sure he could just give that up when they got home again. It would seem sudden to everyone in their own time but for them, it had already been almost a year and a half since they had gotten stuck in this star system.

First day, a hundred days, what difference had it made. He would have lost control eventually given the situation. He had every faith in her abilities but once it was clear that they were over five _hundred_ years into the future and the gate was just missing entirely, her abilities didn't matter. They were stuck here in this time and place and it could have been a decade before they figured out the way home to their own time and planet.

Jack was willing to sacrifice a few years of his life to save the planet, but that wasn't what they were doing here. Here they were just trying to survive the situation and if they took comfort in each other's love well, Jack could be pragmatic and the Air Force was low on his lists of priorities at this point. Keeping Sam safe was his main concern and making sure she continued to believe she could get them home was his second.

A younger him might have included enforcing chain of command to accomplish those goals but he was old and he'd almost lost her to a guy no one could figure out why she was even dating in the first place. She'd been folding herself smaller and smaller to fit into what the cop thought she ought to be. He was pretty certain that she'd be coming to him next with a discharge form and asking to leave the service so she could go be a housewife.

The thought of his beautiful and brilliant Carter giving up everything she loved for some guy made Jack furious. Something in his body language changed when he thought about Pete changing Sam into another cookie cutter housewife.

"Jack?" Sam asked him and put a hand on his chest, her large blue eyes imploring.

"Sorry. Just got lost in thought Carter." He told her and buried his face in her neck. "I love you." He told her softly.

Sam smiled against his chest. "What brought that on?"

"I almost lost you to that cop." He admitted. Because they were long past keeping things from each other to save face.

Sam turned his chin gently with her hand so he'd look in her eyes. "One admission that you wanted me, even if you couldn't say how you felt, would have made me break things off with him." She told him and claimed his lips with her own.

Jack looked a little shocked at first, then sank into the kiss like a desperate man who's found salvation.


	13. Things Just Got More Complicated

**Chapter 12 – Things Just Got More Complicated**

"So you admit that your progress has stalled?" Leonis asked Sam in conference a couple months later.

"My people are working on alternatives but without crystal memory sticks we have to work with silicone based technology which has its limits. Now if we had the ability to grow matrix crystals like the ones used in the drive shown to me, then I'd be further along." Sam told the board.

"You are talking about more time."

"Yes sir. I did warn you from the start that we might need several years to rebuild the technology."

"But the model you saw yourself was a faster than light drive."

"It was sir, and it worked." Sam didn't need to mention that she'd designed the drive herself from a combination of Alteran and Asgard tech as that might raise all sorts of questions she didn't want to answer.

"Your spouse seems to spend the majority of his time researching old Earth vessels." One of the board members pointed out. They had not tried to hide their activities as there was no way for Sam to maintain a long term project and not get caught hacking the system to speed things up so they had played it safe.

"Sam and I agree that Earth had access to some of the technologies needed to complete the drives. I've been looking through the records because I know what I'm looking at from an engineering standpoint. That's not a task I feel comfortable leaving to the lab techs who might innocently miss something having not studied Earth lore as extensively as I did." Jack told them. Seeing the humor that he was the historian this time.

"Fair enough." Leonis told him. He'd long suspected much of their technology was incomplete and that perhaps someone would spend the time to sift through it. He did not entirely trust O'Neill's motives but his loyalty to his wife was absolute and she, at least, seemed to be above board. It had been a lucky chance that his people had listened to their offer to work for them instead, regardless of where they got their information from.

"Continue with your work then. You are both expected to attend the Unification Day celebration at my home this weekend. Please inform your driver. He knows the address." Leonis told them. It was not a request.

"Yes sir." Sam agreed and sat down to weather the rest of the board meeting which they would not be excused from until the next break. Jack disassembled a pen and fiddled with its insides. Sam mentally calculated time travel.

* * *

"I hate these things."

"I know Jack, but it's only for a few hours." Sam told him.

"You better be glad I love you. I could have gotten away with staying home."

"There's cake." She said with a smirk.

"Right." He said with a resigned huff and they walked up to the majordomo to be announced.

An hour into the party they were both bored out of their minds. While they had become accustomed to the rather stuffy sort of small talk required for such functions, neither enjoyed it, and would have been happier at home.

Jack glanced over at the dance floor and his mouth dropped open slightly.

"What is it?" Sam asked him in concern.

"Is that a gavotte?"

"A what?"

"You know, 16th century French cotillion dance where everyone on the floor dances with everyone else at least once by the end of the song."

Sam looked up at him utterly lost. "I have no idea what you are talking about Jack." She was also amused to learn her would-be husband was familiar with the oddest topics.

"Huh, I thought you took dance classes Carter."

"Not those kids of dances Jack." She said chuckling. "Why don't you teach me?" She put out a hand.

Jack shrugged. It would pass the time at least and took her hand, leading her on to the dance floor. "First, we bow." He told her. "Just follow my lead."

"Yes sir." She said drolly.

* * *

At dinner they were seated with a random dignitary and his wife that Jack vaguely recognized but hadn't bothered to memorize his name. That's what he had Carter for after all who had remembered his name and his wife's name.

"Jack, you remember Governor Yu." Sam said with a small kick to his shin under the table to not make jokes.

"Yes, how could I possibly forget Yu." Jack said with a deadpan face.

"This is my wife Zhi Ruo."

Sam kicked him again before he called her Zero. Jack gave her a mild look as if butter wouldn't melt in his mouth but his hand under the table pinched her thigh through her voluminous skirt. "Ma'am." Jack said politely.

"It is nice to meet you both. My husband Fei Hong has said much about you over the last few months." She told them enthusiastically.

"I'm sure he has." Jack said, earning him a look from Sam. "All good I hope."

"Of course. Fei Hong is very enthusiastic about your project. He tells me it will revolutionize planetary travel as we know it."

"That's the plan." Jack told her.

"He also tells me you were working as mercenaries before Blue Star employed you. That must have been exciting. Did you meet that way?"

"No, we met through work years before that." Sam told her.

"An office romance, how exciting. Fei Hong courted me through our families. My father had very old fashioned ideas about his bloodlines that I do not share but I accepted the proposal because he is very charming and it was an advantageous marriage."

Governor Yu was busily devouring a plate of noodles and ignoring his wife's prattle which made Jack wonder how much money the guy had to buy a wife.

"I fell in love with Sam her first day of work. I was rude to her and she offered to arm wrestle me to prove she belonged there." Jack said in amusement.

"And you Samantha? Did you fall in love that first day?"

Sam chuckled and shook her head. "No. I didn't realize it until we worked together for about two and a half years when he went missing and I over-reacted a little. But it was probably about eight months after we first met that it happened. I had a bit of a huge crush on him before that." Sam admitted.

"If it matters, I didn't realize I was in love with her for about four months. I just thought she was hot so I followed her around a lot." Jack admitted.

Sam chuckled. "I wondered why you wanted to kill Mackenzie after that." She admitted.

"There had to be a better way to find out who had Daniel than making you hysterical. I still want to beat the crap out of him for that." Jack told her firmly.

Sam squeezed his hand in understanding. She had created a working matter collider to save his life after all.

"You are both very sweet. A love match is a rare thing in our circle. Still, I am quite fond of my husband and he is kind to me. I am certain he tires of my endless chatter yet he continues to keep me around." She said with an amused smile.

"If she does all the socialization I have time to eat in peace." Fei Hong admitted.

Jack grinned. He was starting to like Yu.

Sam giggled. "I'm rather surprised my husband is being as social as he is. He's normally much more grumpy."

Zhi Ruo leaned forward and stage whispered to Sam. "I think it's their age."

Both women laughed and laughed harder when their husbands gave each other long suffering looks.

"So tell me Dr. Carter, which aspect of the project are you most satisfied with?" Yu asked her politely a few moments after the laughter died down.

"Well, I don't have access to the power units I saw being used but I remembered working on a power augmentation device that was very effective so I've succeeded in recreating it in the hopes that the power units I'm working on will eventually be useful for sustained flights." Sam explained.

Jack remembered that project. That had been too close. For no other reason than his own emotional well being, Jack laced his fingers with Sam's. He'd almost lost her forever that day.

Sam looked at their fingers then in his eyes curiously and he shrugged. It wasn't entirely unusual for him to need physical reassurance from her. That had become more common over the last year and a half.

They both should have seen that coming. When they were stranded on P4X-347 for several weeks, Sam had stated she wasn't calling Jack 'sir' for the next 10 years. He'd yelled at her because they were both suffering from withdrawal but after they figured out the solution she'd restated that she wasn't spending however many weeks of their forced vacation calling him 'Sir' all the time any more than she would on team night or if they went out together on Earth.

They had talked, really talked for the first time in a while during that. Not about their feelings though they should have, but about what they wanted out of life, his cabin, her dad, his grandparents. Things they should have talked about over the years and just never seemed to have time to do because other things, more important things were happening. And for those few brief weeks, they had just been Jack and Sam, enjoying each other's company. Finding that the stress of the job wasn't what was fueling their feelings for each other at all.

Jack had kept his hands to himself during that time because the temptation was all too easy with her guard down the way it was then. The situation had stood that they were going home one day soon and it just wasn't the right time yet to tell her how much he still loved her. He'd hoped he'd conveyed his feelings with his eyes though. She had looked at him the same way and it had required every fiber of his being not to kiss her to seal the deal knowing it wouldn't have stopped at a kiss. Not with the way he felt about her.

Sam had known. It was why her feelings had been so confused by the time of the Prometheus incident. He acted like he loved her but he never did anything about it, not even when she'd almost died. Sam had been so sure the girl Gracie had been a manifestation of her imagination at first but over time she realized it was the physical manifestation of the creature creating what appeared to be a nebula. But it had chosen to manifest as her deepest most secret desire. To give Jack another child to love. When she'd gotten home he'd admonished her for calling him Jack. She knew now it was because they were at work, but at the time, she'd interpreted it as rejection.

She wished for the umpteenth time over the last year that he'd been more forthright. She wouldn't have wasted Pete's time. She understood his reasons but they had gotten into a rather large fight about their situation that she had very pointedly told him that had he honestly expressed what he wished they could be, she'd have waited for him.

So because of all that when they realized that they might get home but the chances were extraordinarily slim that it would be any time in the near future, if ever. Sam had decided she was done with waiting to see what happened. Again.

The meal wound down and Sam and Jack felt free to make their excuses to return to their borrowed home. Jack seemed pensive but Sam chalked that up to being forced to socialize all night. They fell into bed, exhausted by their long evening and fell nearly instantly asleep, curled up tight together.


	14. Odds Are

**Chapter 13 – Odds Are**

Sam woke to Jack mumbling in his sleep and his arms reflexively tightening around her. He was in the middle of a nightmare so she rolled over and gently spoke his name.

Jack continued to mumble and convulsively thrash without letting her go. "Jack." She said more sternly. "Wake up, it's just a dream." She told him as she took his face in her hands, gently patting one cheek trying to pull him out of his nightmare.

Jack's eyes flew open, unseeing, his expression panicked. "Sam." He croaked out but his eyes were still devoid of recognition. He was seeing whatever awful events his dreamed contained not her. "Sam!" Her name came out like a strangled scream and his face turned from panic to horror.

"Jack!" Sam swore under her breath and shook him. Whatever it was, it was bad. "Wake _up_ Jack." She ordered him sternly.

His body seemed to slump for a moment and his eyes cleared and filled with tears of relief. He clutched her to him again but this time in a fierce hug. "God, Sam. I almost lost you."

"Hey." She said stroking the back of his head gently, ignoring the damp sweat in his hair. "I'm here now and I won't leave you again." She told him reassuringly.

"No, Sam, I… you almost died that day. If we'd been a second too late…" He trailed off and buried his head in her neck and shook with grief.

Sam was perplexed. Usually Jack's nightmares had specific triggers. A similarly bad event, a disagreement, etcetera. This had come out of nowhere. "Jack, what's wrong?" she finally asked him, her hands stroking slow circles on his back to sooth him.

He didn't say anything for a long time until finally he let out a long sigh. "You were talking about the power amplifier tonight."

"I was." She agreed.

"You used those to kill the Kull."

She had been ready to give up when she'd seen Jack. He'd saved her life that day. Much longer and she would have fallen with exhaustion and been killed. She realized now how terrified he must have been. "Oh Jack." She said softly and kissed his neck, his shoulder, his jaw until she worked to the corner of his mouth where she stopped and looked into his eyes until he returned her gaze. "You saved me." She told him simply and kissed him, gently at first but his emotional state had him needing more, needing all of her and so she gave herself willingly, surrendered to his need to confirm she was here and alive and his.

After, they lay under the blankets, sweat cooling on their skin. "I'm never letting you go again." He told her as he gathered her closer to him.

"I'm not letting you go again either." She told him softly and snuggled against his chest. The smell of their love making between them, a warm reminder that there was no going back to the way things were. They had fought their feelings for each other for years to no effect. If they got home, they would stop fighting this.

"Let's get some sleep Carter. We have another busy week coming up." He told her as he held her.

"M'k." she said sleepily as she drifted off she idly calculated something in her head but she was too sleepy to finish the train of thought and was snoring softly into Jack's shoulder in moments.

Jack closed his eyes and kissed the top of her head. She was safe. There would be no more nightmares tonight.

* * *

Monday morning Jack went back to investigating what he'd found the week before. The ship name had obviously been a message as it clearly wasn't the same ship and he hoped that the records contained some kind of instructions on how to reveal the gate or some other equally useful way to get home. So far though he was coming up with nothing.

He told her so over lunch.

"Jack, it took you weeks to find what we were looking for last time and I don't think it's your skills at searching that are the problem. Whoever entered the data did it in such a way that it was almost deliberately difficult to track down." She reassured him.

"What I don't get is why. Why make it so damned hard if the person wanted the information to be found." He grumped into his oatmeal. He currently missed Froot Loops after a steady diet of oats for the past few months. "I'm going to turn into a horse." He complained of the contents of his bowl.

"Have some fruit." She suggested.

"It's not the same." He sighed but winked at her. They have had this conversation before. "How are you doing with the ZPM substitute?"

"Still working on it as I told everyone at the board meeting last week. Honestly I'm just going to have to break down and invent crystal memory storage technology."

"How do you plan to do that?"

"I have… no idea." She admitted. The Alterans had invented the things and Earth had not yet mastered the technique. She understood how to forge them in theory but it would take a lot of trial and error before they were ready to go.

"So you're saying I have time to work on this."

Sam laughed at his smirk. "Yes Jack, you apparently have all the time in the world and who knows, you might get lucky and find the answers to my problem too."

"I'm sorry. All I heard was that I might get lucky." Jack said with a familiar leer before shoving more oatmeal in his mouth.

Sam laughed again.

* * *

It was a solid month before Jack found anything he could work with. "Hey Sam, you got a minute?" He asked her. She was on the other side of their slightly larger lab tinkering with some hardware their staff had cooked up for her.

"Sure Jack, just a moment." She told him before giving the kids as Jack called them some instructions about what needed to be adjusted while she talked to Jack. "Find something?"

"I might have." He agreed. "Take a load off Carter." He said indicating the seat next to him.

Once Sam was seated he started pointing out some information on his screen. "Is it just my imagination or is that…"

"Sure looks like one. If they did that on everything we need it might be easier to find. Try doing an image search and see what you come up with." She suggested and got up. She put a hand on his shoulder.

"You all right?" He asked, concerned.

"Yah, just got up too fast. I should have eaten breakfast." She admitted before kissing his cheek and getting back to her own work.

Jack shrugged and started his image search. While the computer did its work Jack played with a yo-yo someone had found him a while back.

A couple hours later Jack had found… nothing at all. Apparently the image only showed up once on a single archive that was not accessible unless you physically went to the museum. Jack scowled at the results. "Oh come on." He muttered under his breath.

"How did you do?" Sam asked him a moment later.

"Peachy." He grumped and showed her the failed image search.

Sam sighed. "I should have known it wouldn't be that easy." She said.

"No. Whoever it was clearly wasn't invested in helping us in that way."

"So what do we do now?" she asked him.

"Go eat." He said with finality.

Sam chuckled. "Ok. We'll go eat. Something might come to us."

Jack got up and took her hand. It amused him to do this as unlike at their real jobs where they carefully avoided showing any affection to avoid rumors about a situation that was at least emotionally true, here, they were listed as married so people expected at least some affection and they couldn't be fired as they were effectively prisoners although ones with extraordinarily long leashes. So he behaved exactly the way he wanted to whenever he felt like it. Within reason. There were a couple times he stopped himself from finding a supply closet and ravishing her.

Jack eyeballed Sam's tray as they sat down. "Hungry?" He asked her with dry amusement.

"Starving." She admitted. She had skipped breakfast because she felt a bit off but she felt fine now and her body was complaining loudly about the lack of contents of her stomach. Her tray was loaded with food, a coffee and a carton of milk.

Jack chuckled and dug into his… whatever this was. It wasn't as bad as base food, he just honestly wasn't positive if it was chicken or something else and he didn't want to know. "How's your doohickey?" He asked her.

Sam grinned at him and explained what they had gotten done the last couple days. Jack really didn't care but he loved to watch how excited she got when she had made some scientific breakthrough even if it was a small one. By the time she wound down he was grinning a little foolishly at her.

"You didn't hear any of that, did you?" She teased.

"Not a bit." He admitted unabashedly. "But I enjoyed you telling me."

Sam snorted with mirth. "Some pair we are."

"Eat your lunch Carter." He ordered gently and stole a pickle off her plate.

"Get your own pickles." She objected.

"Yours are right here and you can't possibly eat all that in…" He looked at his watch, "ten minutes." He pointed out.

"Crap, you're right. Have at it then." She said agreeable and they polished off her lunch together.

* * *

Four hours later Sam tried to smother her fourth yawn.

"Are we boring you Carter?" he asked her in amusement.

"Peachy." She told him with a droll smile. "Someone kept me up late last night."

"I didn't hear you complaining at the time." He pointed out.

From the other side of the room, Christian snickered.

"No one asked the peanut gallery Matthews." Jack said jovially.

"Getting back to work sir." He said with a smirk and picked his screwdriver back up.

The kid was a pretty good all purpose lab tech. He'd have made a good airman, Jack thought. They had settled into a sort of routine that the kid drove them back and forth to the lab and sometimes they fed him dinner for his troubles as he still was only being paid for the one job. He and his fellow lab techs had blossomed under the forward thinking of Sam and the easy leadership style of Jack.

"We should pack up soon anyway Sam. This search I'm running isn't going to finish for hours and I doubt you are doing anything you can't do tomorrow."

"I suppose not. All right. Let's call it an early day. Chris, get your coat, we'll meet you out front."

"Yes Ma'am." He told Sam.

She turned to the other techs which now numbered four. "Finish your current tasks and go home guys."

She was greeted with a round of nods and 'yes Ma'ams'.

"You're popular." Jack told her teasingly.

"Lies. They prefer your weird jokes any day of the week."

"Nah, you're the pretty one. They like you better." He said chuckling as they left the building and got into the land speeder.

"Well, I am prettier than you." She admitted with an amused grin.

Jack grinned. She was a lot more fun without ranks getting in the way. "How about I make us some pasta and chicken with veggies?"

She smiled and snuggled into his shoulder. "Works for me." She yawned again and covered her mouth to try to hide it.

"And an early bedtime, sleepy head." He said grinning as he put his arm around her shoulders.

"You're very satisfied with yourself, aren't you?"

Jack smirked. "Shouldn't I be Carter?"

She chuckled.

* * *

Later that night Jack was brushing his teeth when Sam ran in from the bedroom, lifted the toilet lid and vomited up her dinner. Jack quickly spat out the paste and wiped his mouth before running a glass of water for her and passing it to her when she paused, arm slung over the tank.

Sam swished and spat into the toilet then looked up at Jack with a slightly horrified look on her face. "Jack, I think I- "

Before she could finish he put his fingers over her lips and buried his face in her neck for a moment. He pulled away and kissed her gently then put his finger to her lips again before turning on the shower and pulling his shirt off. "C'mere." He said softly to her and when she did, a worried frown on her face, he pulled her nightshirt over her head before tugging off his shorts and pulling her into the now steaming shower. After pulling the curtain he held her and buried his face in her neck and spoke softly. "You probably are. You smell like you are."

"I'm so sorry Jack, I was so careful I don't know how it happened." She told him just as softly, her arms wrapped tightly around him, afraid to let go.

"We both knew this might happen eventually, sweetie. It's no one's fault. Even if we weren't emotionally compromised it might have happened just keeping up appearances."

"I know, I know, but I was so careful." She said in frustration. "I smell like I am?" she was equally flustered by his rare endearment.

"Carter," he lifted her head to look in her eyes. "I know your scent like I know the back of my hand. I have for years." He told her with a serious frown.

Sam colored at his admission and smiled shyly. "Years?"

He buried his face in her neck again. "Years." He told her and began gently stroking her back. "This is probably my fault."

She giggled. "Jack, it wasn't like I wasn't a willing participant."

Jack laughed softly. "Ok, you have a point, you are a very enthusiastic participant."

She hummed in agreement. "So what do we do now?"

"Well, we could just stick around here. I'm not a big fan but it's an option." He admitted.

"What else have you got?"

"Hmm…" his lips trailed along her shoulder.

"Jack, focus." She said laughing softly.

He sighed dramatically. "Fine. Option two is we both take off and hope we can get away but I veto that one right now. I'm not risking you or our baby trying to escape."

Sam let out a shuddering sigh.

"Yah, that's a thing I never thought I'd be able to say." Jack admitted. "I'm scared too." He told her. "So option three is I disappear in the night and try to track down Gus and the Zhuàn lún, get our GDO and handheld DHD back from him, talk them into rescuing you, and see if that pictogram of a lambda in that file means what I think it does."

"That sounds time consuming." She admitted.

"Which is why you would be safer here until I manage those first two parts and possibly the last one." He told her. "It would be easier to find him if I'm not constantly afraid for you Sam."

It was on the tip of her tongue to object when she realized she was asking far too much of him to let her risk their child for her ego. She'd be safe here without him. They needed her. Jack had always been expendable which was why she had insisted he was her husband and as soon as she realized the entire house was bugged, seduced him so they would believe her version of events. Not that she hadn't planned to do so anyway. "All right but you need to promise me something."

"What's that?" He asked, even though he could guess.

"You stay alive Jack O'Neill, because I'm not raising your baby by myself if he or she is anything like you."

He chuckled and kissed her gently. "Deal."

"All right, the water is getting cold, can we get dried off?" She complained.

"How's your stomach feeling?"

"Better. Do we have any ice cream?"

"And it starts." He said with a laugh and a kiss on her nose. "I'll go look."


	15. Dust in the Wind

**Chapter 14 – Dust in the Wind**

Jack stuck around a couple days to make sure she was ok and to have one of the kids get a pregnancy test just to make sure. They made sure a friend of a friend bought it so it wouldn't be traced back to them. Chris had told them they were lucky to be in a core world that while sparsely populated, at least had access to modern medicine.

A week after they were certain she was pregnant Jack slipped out of the house in the dead of the night with supplies that wouldn't slow him down, some credits, and that positive pregnancy test to remind himself exactly what he was doing all this for in the first place. Not that he didn't know. Carter had given him a second chance at love and a second chance at being a father.

His first step obviously was to get off planet before the Alliance noticed or at least cared that he was gone. He and Sam had agreed it would be best if she just continued to cooperate with Alliance as though she either agreed with their politics or at least didn't care.

The night before he left they made love like they wouldn't see each other for months which he was fairly certain would be the case anyway.

He slipped out unnoticed having used Sam's codes to glitch the security footage outside their house into an endless loop for ten minutes then come back on as though nothing happened. By then he was long gone.

He changed into something less burglerish to find a ship that would take him back to Gonghe where they had met Gus. Hopefully someone on that planet or another White Sun system resident would know where he was or where he'd headed next. He only had twelve other planets to pick from. He didn't fault Gus for not trying to retrieve them. Alliance troops had killed everyone but he and Sam and only because they had bargained her brains for their lives.

It took Jack several hours wandering around the space port to procure a ship that was headed for Gonghe from Ra Amiran. Unsurprisingly, Gonghe wasn't considered a destination planet in the core. Perfect spot for a gate though. Records said it was discovered in 2027 but nothing about when it was terraformed which lead Jack to voice his suspicions that it was that way when it was discovered. In his research Jack had started to develop some suspicions about what happened to the gate but he'd kept them to himself as he didn't want Sam to worry. Hopefully his answers were in the record with a Lambda on it. If they weren't, he was going to have to raise his son or daughter on a strange planet among people he didn't entirely trust.

He hadn't been kidding when he said the pregnancy was probably his fault. Sam had been extremely careful about her cycle so the most likely conception date had been the night after the Unification Day party. Sam had given him her love freely that night after his terrible nightmare and Jack had absently learned her cycle as well. They had simply cut it far too close and now he was going to be a father again.

Jack felt equal parts thrilled and terrified. There would be no simply hiding their relationship when they got home now. Everyone would demand to know what happened, how Sam got pregnant, who the father was, etc. He'd retire. That was the only logical solution. Sam could continue her work with the SGC and he'd be a stay at home dad.

Jack didn't realize he'd approached the next ship with a huge grin on his face because he'd been thinking about being a stay at home dad.

"You looking for a ride mister?" A teenage boy asked him.

"Can you get me to Gonghe?" Jack asked, still grinning.

"Can if you got the credits."

"I can pay. Cash." He added.

"I'll go tell pop to fire up the engines then. Name's Nem. This here's the Lady Liberty. 'Mon in." The ship was a pale green. Jack shrugged.

"Should look more like Mega Maid if they were going to name her that." Jack mumbled to himself as he followed the teen onto the ship.

"Da! DAA! We got a passenger!" The kid bellowed as he left Jack in the aft near a jump seat.

Jack shrugged and waited for the kid's father to get back.

The captain walked back after Jack felt the engines rumble to life under the decking. It wasn't a large ship. "Howdy, name's Saunders. I hear y'll be needing teh get to Gonghe?"

"I've got cash." Jack told him.

"A'ight. Yah got a name?"

Jack pondered what to say. The guy could be a movie buff. Best to go with something less obvious than his usual jokes. His dad's name would do. "Name's James." Jack told the other man.

"Alliance be lookin fer somon at looks like you."

"I wouldn't know. I was here on business and it's concluded." Jack told him.

The man named Saunders nodded slowly. He didn't seem to believe Jack but he didn't seem disinclined to fly him out of here either. "Well, take a seat and buckle up, we best get in the air afore they start to thinking hard about where yah might be. James."

"Right." Jack said, knowing for certain the other man hadn't bought it.

Nem wandered back to collect Jack's fare for his ride and returned to the cockpit. Jack noted the father was dressed in what he'd learned was a 'browncoat' officer's jacket and decided the man was taking Jack's business out of spite. Jack was ok with that. A man who was thumbing his nose at the system was unlikely to spread your business around at some later time.

Once they were through the planetary atmosphere Jack unbuckled and looked for the captain. He was in the cockpit reading in apparent boredom.

"Don't want to know yer business. Ta me yer just another fare. We clear on that?" The man said to Jack absently in warning.

Jack nodded in understanding. "Actually, I was hoping you knew where someone might be."

"Who like?"

"Gentleman by the name of Augustus Shu. You know him?"

"Can't say I've ever heard of him." Saunders told him. "'S a big Verse though. 'Taint no telling."

"Yah, I guess so. All right, well, I met him on Gonghe so that's where I'm going to look for him first, hopefully someone there will knew where he is."

"Told yah I don't want ta know yer business feller. Let's keep things casual like."

Jack nodded. "All right. I'll just go hang out in the back then."

"Don't touch nothin' neither."

"Yah sure, you betcha." Jack agreed.


	16. Unsurprising Allies

**Chapter 15 – Unsurprising Allies**

Sam got into the landspeeder alone. Chris looked at her questioningly.

"Just drive." She said in a sad voice. She'd been crying

"Are you all right Sam? Where's Jack?"

Sam shook her head and refused to answer him.

Chris drove, frowning. After a while he changed course and headed away from the research facility. Sam was so lost in thought she didn't notice until he pulled off the road next to a small field. "Jamie and Lorin will be here in a few minutes." He explained after they got out of the vehicle and moved away from it.

"Christian…"

"Look, Sam, clearly something happened, you need to talk to us about it and not where we have an audience. There's no tech right now that can listen in on us from here. The landspeeder has a tracker but I'll tell them you were upset and wanted to go for a drive then we saw some birds or something." The lab facility had both cameras and audio surveillance. Sam and Jack easily spoke to each other in their own personal version of code but these kids weren't in on the ins and outs of old earth expressions or random Goa'uld terms.

Sam sighed and looked up at the bright morning sky that was so apropos to her feelings. "All right." She had to trust these kids sooner or later. May as well be now. Eventually the administrators of the facility were going to find out she was pregnant one way or another. The kids already knew as they had helped her get the pregnancy test.

When Lorin got there she strolled over casually. "So you're for sure?" she asked.

"Yah." Sam said simply.

"Jack left." Chris told her.

"What? Why? Does he not want the baby?" Lorin demanded.

Sam started to say no that wasn't it when Jamie pulled up and joined them. "What's going on?" He asked them.

"That's what we're trying to find out. Jack left after confirming Sam was pregnant."

"Why that Ching-wah tsao duh liou mahng."

Lorin snorted in mirth. Sam looked at her for translation but Lorin shook her head. "It was really rude even for Jamie."

"He didn't leave me if that's what you guys are thinking. It's not safe for me to have a baby here. We need to get home."

"So why aren't you with him?" Jamie demanded.

"Because he has to find something that belongs to us before we can leave and it's not exactly safe to be shot at while pregnant."

"She's got a point Jamie. Jack could and did slip away unnoticed. Sam sticks out like a sore thumb anyway but worse, they _need_ her for the project. Jack is expendable." Chris explained.

Sam looked hard at him. "Sorry Sam, you know I don't mean it that way."

"I know. I'm just so frustrated. We were so careful and still this happened."

"It's not your fault. The doctors wouldn't let you have any contraception because of your ages. They must have thought one of you was sterile."

Sam snorted in amusement. "Hardly."

Lorin laughed. "Yah, seems not huh. Anyway what are you going to do?"

"The only thing I can do, keep working on the project until he comes back."

"What if he doesn't?" Jamie asks.

Chris looked annoyed but nodded. "Not because he doesn't want to. They might throw him in a deep dark hole or kill him Sam."

"Jack is tougher than he looks. He'll be all right. He's got a pretty big stack of credits we've saved too."

"They marked the ones they paid you." Chris told her.

"They didn't mark the ones we exchanged while shopping." Sam told him in smug amusement.

"You laundered them?" Jamie asked in surprised admiration.

"Of course. I knew they were marked." Sam didn't tell them that her protein marker made her able to sense the naquadah on the credit chips paid to her by Blue Star.

"So that's the game plan then? We just pretend Jack left you and keep working?" Jamie said.

"Do you think anyone will buy that?" Chris said dubiously.

"They will if we spin it that he was angry about the pregnancy. You guys are pretty old for a first kid. They would believe that Jack never wanted to be a father."

Sam choked on a laugh that was a half sob. "It's a good thing they don't really know him or they would never believe that either." She told the three of them.

Lorin gave her a comforting hug. "I know. Jack loves kids. Every time they bring a school outing through the facility he answers all their questions and shows them cartoons he's made. He's a pretty good artist honestly."

"He used to leave me doodles at work. I have a whole drawer full of them."

"Sam, that's really adorable." Chris told her.

"That he draws me pictures?"

"That you keep them in a drawer." He said pointedly.

Sam blushed.

Lorin chuckled and hugged her again. "I think it's sweet. You two have been in love with each other for a really long time, haven't you?"

"Jack swears he fell in love with me the day we met. I had to get to know him a little as he came off as a little bit of a jerk at first but otherwise, yes, I've been in love with him all along."

"Why didn't you get married?"

"It was complicated by our work." She told them. "We would have gotten in pretty big trouble if we'd acted on how we felt."

"But no one but us knows anything about that so if Sam acts upset about Jack leaving we could spin it that Jack never wanted to be a parent and, I don't know, Sam thought she could change his mind by getting pregnant anyway."

"That could work. We didn't have an argument about it and made love last night but we could play it that him taking the positive test with him was his way of telling me he knew and didn't approve."

"He took it with him? Does the guy do anything that isn't sweet?"

"Well, he murders people occasionally." Sam told Lorin and laughed when the girl blanched.

"All right. Let's get back to the lab. We are all going to be in trouble for being late. Leonis will probably dock all our pay."

"The only reason he pays me is it's easier than a stipend." Sam said with a shrug.

They piled back into their land speeders and headed back to the research facility. None of them said anything when they got there and each went to work. Sam dramatically acted upset periodically which she didn't have to act particularly hard for as she was several weeks pregnant and hormonal so Jack being AWOL was going to be upsetting regardless of the reason.

A messenger dropped off a note for Sam while she was eating lunch at her desk.

"What is it?" Chris asked her.

"Admin Leonis wants to see me immediately after lunch." Sam sighed.

"Great." Jamie said in a tone so like Jack's that Sam's laugh was a watery hiccup.

"I'm sure he wants to know where we were this morning and where Jack is." She sighed. "As if I know."

"Well, at least you can tell him the truth. We'll go with you Sam. Like the Musketeers." Lorin told her.

"Thank you guys but I think I should go by myself if that's what they are expecting."

"But what if they do something to you?" Jamie asked, worried.

Sam smiled enigmatically. "They can try." She said.


	17. Circle Back

**Chapter 16 – Circle Back**

**Present Time:**

Jack kicked at the dirt. Gus was long gone and no one at the space port seemed to have seen or heard from him in months. He'd disappeared into the wind. So Jack had done the only logical thing he could think of. He went back to where the gate was supposed to be.

What he wouldn't do for Thor to show up but Thor was hundreds of years dead by now he figured unless they had solved their genetic degradation issues. "Where are you, you stupid piece of crap." He demanded of the absent gate.

Jack plopped down on the ground and hung his head between his knees. Had he not been so frustrated with his situation and worried about Sam he probably would have escaped in time. It was only random chance the men who had followed him from the space port were the crew of the Serenity. Anyone else might have just carted him back to the lab and collected the easy money.

He'd heard them coming up on him but it was too late and there was no cover to speak of so he waited for them to jump him. He'd been trying to get away rather than kill them which tactically possibly wasn't his best idea but Jack just didn't have time to figure out what to do with the bodies right now so instead he found himself slung over a dirty unwashed shoulder.

"Jayne, put him in the hold." The dark haired man who had tripped him before the larger dirty looking man in an orange and yellow hat had punched him in the head, ringing his bell hard enough to make Jack see stars.

"All right." The deep, gruff voice of his captor replied, grunting under Jack's considerable weight.

"They have my wife." Jack slurred, not quite coherent yet.

Jayne stopped walking "What?" he asked the deceptively heavy man.

"The people who hired you." Jack croaked and coughed a little. "They need me… to… to control her." He coughed again.

Jayne dropped him unceremoniously on the ground. "Mal, we got a problem."

"What now?"

"Our bounty has a wife."

"So?" Mal asked in disinterest.

"Our client has her. The bounty is to get her cooperation."

"Go tsao de liars. They told me he was wanted for murder." The man didn't correct Mal that being wanted for murder probably wasn't unlikely as he had probably killed a few people to escape the first time.

"Yah, well, do you suppose his wife is worth some money to him?"

Jack looked up and scrubbed his hands through his hair. "I can get you money if you can get us home. She's a national treasure." He said with a pained look.

"How much money?" Mal drawled.

"We've been missing for almost two years by her calculations. They would pay a _lot_ to get her back. She's one of our top scientists."

"Mal, why are you standing out here chatting with the prisoner?" Kaylee demanded from the rear bay door.

"Looks like we got a better offer." He told her.

"Well you better get inside before the Alliance shows up or we'll have a lot more to deal with than flipped bounty."

"Girl's got a point." Jayne pointed out.

"Fine, grab him. Let's go." Mal said with a sweep of his shoulder.

"I can walk" Jack groused at Jayne who grabbed Jack's arm.

"Suit yourself." The scrubby man said and stood over him to make sure he didn't try to take off.

Ten minutes later, Mal stood against the wall of the small eating area, Sheppard Book behind him, Jayne sat across from the unknown older man, arms crossed against his chest, his brows lowered. Kaylee sat in the corner and River and Simon sat in the other.

Jack sat, his hands on the table where everyone could see them and appraised the motley collection of characters before him. There had been a pilot and navigator too but they had chosen to remain in the cockpit.

"So," The man named Mal said casually. "Why don't you tell me what happened to you and your wife."

"Sam and I were on a routine diplomatic trip, you know, kiss some hands, shake some babies…" Jack sighed. "Something happened to our equipment. We didn't end up on the Tepi home world."

"Who are the Tepi?" the man who had introduced himself as Simon asked.

"Humans, like us, The Goa'uld had abandoned them a while back so they were pretty technologically advanced compared to some of the other societies we'd encountered. Carter could tell you more details. I was just there to sign off on the diplomatic stuff, they were sticklers for protocol and I didn't have C3P0 around." Jack quipped.

He was greeted by a round of blank stares. "Ok then." Jack sighed. "Anyway, Carter tried to find out what happened to the Gate while I set up camp…"

**_AN:_**_ And here ends Part 1. Part 2 __**IS**__ under construction but so are some other stories and a huge shout out to __predator1701__ for so many ideas part 2 is kind of getting a massive re-write before I have even had time to write it. Spectacular ideas and many points regarding Sam's knowledge base well considered and now being added for depth to the situation. As she wasn't well fleshed out in the 2__nd__ part, you have nothing but my utmost thianks!_


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